A    BIRD'S-EYE   VIEW   OF 
AMERICAN    HISTORY 


A  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF 

AMERICAN   HISTORY 


BY 


LEON    C.   PRINCE 

OF  THE   PENNSYLVANIA   BAR   AND   THE   FACULTY  OF 
DICKINSON  COLLEGE 


NEW  YORK 

YOUNG    PEOPLE'S    MISSIONARY    MOVEMENT 
OF  THE    UNITED  STATES   AND  CANADA 


E.-7? 


COPYRIGHT,  1907,  BY 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

Published,  March,  1907 


TROW   DIRECTORY 

PRINTING  AND    BOOKBINDING  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK 


Bancroft  library 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    DISCOVERY i 

II.    THE  INDIANS       .     . 14 

III.  THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES 21 

IV.  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES       ...  29 
V.    THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES 36 

VI.  THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR     ...  46 

VII.    THE     COLONIES     IN     THE     EIGHTEENTH 

CENTURY       59 

VIII.    CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION     .     .     .     .     75 
IX.    THE  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR 88 

X.    FORMATION   OF   THE    FEDERAL   GOVERN- 
MENT     118 

XI.    EARLY     ACHIEVEMENT     AND     NATIONAL 

EXPANSION 138 

XII.    THE  WAR  OF  1812 149 

XIII.  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONALITY  AND  THE 
FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  POLIT- 
ICAL PARTIES 161 

v 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIV.    ANDREW  JACKSON  AND  THE  REIGN  OF 

THE  PEOPLE  .     .     .     .     ,    .     .     .174 

XV.  INVENTION,  LITERATURE,  MORAL  PROG- 
RESS AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  .  .187 

XVI.  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS  .  197 

XVII.  SECESSION 215 

XVIII.  THE  CIVIL  WAR 226 

XIX.  RECONSTRUCTION 259 

XX.  FROM  THE  IMPEACHMENT  OF  JOHNSON 
TO  THE  POLITICAL  REVOLUTION 
OF  1884 275 

XXI.    THE  OPENING  OF  A  NEW  ERA    .     .     .  295 

XXII.    THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS      .  309 

XXIII.    WAR  AND  EXPANSION 331 


A   BIRD'S-EYE   VIEW   OF 
AMERICAN    HISTORY 


BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN 
HISTORY 

CHAPTER   I 

DISCOVERY 

A    GLANCE  over  the  United  States  to- 
day reveals   a   strong   and  prosperous 
nation  of  vast  extent,  with  a  citizenship 
made  up  of  many  races  and  a  government  quite 
unlike   the   governments   of  the  nations   from 
which  they  came. 

A  little  over  four  hundred  years  ago  the  peo- 
ple of  Europe  had  never  heard  of  America. 
How  did  they  become  aware  of  its  existence? 
What  sort  of  a  place  was  America  before  that 
time  ?  What  has  become  of  the  native  red  men 
who  once  hunted  and  made  war  on  the  very 
spots  where  dwellings,  shops,  and  colleges  now 
stand?  How  did  the  United  States  become  a 
nation;  and  why  is  there  only  one  instead  of 
several  nations  within  its  extensive  area  ?  When 
our  forefathers  founded  this  government  why 
did  they  make  it  so  unlike  all  others,  and  what  is 


2      BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  secret  of  its  phenomenal  success?  Why  do 
foreigners  who  come  here  to  live  learn  so  soon 
to  love  the  country  of  their  adoption  better  than 
the  land  of  their  birth,  and  why  do  their  chil- 
dren grow  up  to  be  Americans  rather  than  trans- 
planted Germans  or  Italians?  Why  do  Euro- 
peans come  here  at  all?  Very  few  Americans 
go  abroad  to  live.  Is  America  better  than  Eu- 
rope? If  it  is,  what  makes  it  so? 

To  answer  these  and  many  other  questions 
suggested  by  the  obvious  facts  of  the  day  we 
must  first  go  back  many  years  into  the  past,  for 
the  discovery  of  America  is  in  large  part  the  re- 
sult of  ideas  and  events  which  stirred  the  minds 
of  the  people  of  Europe  centuries  ago. 

The  Attempt  to  Find  a  Short  Sea-passage  to 
India. — In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
the  Christian  nations  were  engaged  in  trying  to 
get  possession  of  the  Holy  Land,  which  was 
held  then  as  it  is  to-day  by  Mohammedans. 
The  Crusades  failed  to  accomplish  their  pur- 
pose, but  they  were  followed  by  great  results  of 
an  unexpected  sort.  The  Mohammedans  were 
far  in  advance  of  the  Western  Christians  in 
their  civilization,  and  the  European  soldiers 
learned  from  their  foes  the  use  of  many  scien- 
tific implements  and  articles  of  food  and  cloth- 


DISCOVERY  3 

ing,  which  on  their  return  from  the  wars  they 
introduced  into  their  home  communities.  After 
the  Crusades  ceased  a  flourishing  trade  sprang 
up  between  Europe  and  Asia,  the  metals  and 
woods  of  the  former  being  exchanged  for  the 
pearls,  ivory,  perfumes,  and  delicate  fabrics  of 
the  latter. 

In  1299  Marco  Polo,  an  Italian  traveller  who 
had  spent  many  years  in  Cathay  at  the  court  of 
the  Great  Khan,  the  ruler  of  that  region,  pub- 
lished a  book  containing  an  account  of  the  dis- 
tant countries  he  had  visited.  This  book  was 
read  by  almost  everybody  of  intelligence,  and 
greatly  quickened  the  interest  which  the  Cru- 
sades had  already  awakened  in  the  commercial 
opportunities  of  the  East.* 

Gradually  the  trade  with  the  Orient  was 
monopolized  by  the  Italian  commercial  cities, 
Genoa  and  Venice.  There  were  two  ways  of 
reaching  the  Asiatic  markets ;  one  was  controlled 
by  Genoa,  the  other  by  Venice.  The  Genoese 
sent  their  goods  to  Constantinople,  through  the 
Black  Sea,  and  thence  overland  by  trains  of 
mules  and  camels  to  the  ports  on  the  Persian 

*  The  term  "East"  included  besides  Palestine,  Cathay 
(the  early  European  name  for  China),  India,  which  was  in- 
definite, and  Cipango,  the  country  which  we  know  to-day  as 
Japan. 


4      BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Gulf;  while  the  merchants  of  Venice  traded  by 
way  of  Alexandria  and  the  Red  Sea.  Both 
routes  were  slow,  expensive,  and  perilous. 

In  1453  the  Turks,  a  fierce,  barbarous  peo- 
ple who  had  already  overrun  a  large  part  of 
Asia  Minor,  captured  Constantinople.  The 
effect  of  this  calamity  was  to  block  the  former 
routes  of  travel  and  ruin  the  trade  of  the  Ital- 
ian cities.  It  then  became  necessary  to  find  a 
new  way  to  the  East.  The  Portuguese  believed 
that  a  new  route  might  be  found  by  sailing  south- 
ward along  the  coast  of  Africa.  In  1497  the 
Portuguese  Vasco  da  Gama  rounded  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  and  reached  India.  As  Genoa 
and  Venice  declined  in  commercial  importance 
they  were  superseded  by  Portugal  and  Spain, 
and  the  Atlantic  took  the  place  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean as  the  highway  of  commerce. 

Columbus. — Among  those  who  studied  this 
problem  of  a  short  sea-passage  was  a  young 
sailor  named  Christopher  Columbus.  He  was 
probably  born  in  Genoa  about  the  year  1446, 
but  after  1470  lived  in  Lisbon,  supporting  him- 
self by  making  maps  and  charts  for  navigators. 

Columbus  believed  that  the  Eastern  countries 
could  be  reached  by  sailing  west.  He  was  one 
of  the  few  men  of  his  day  who  knew  that  the 


DISCOVERY  5 

earth  was  spherical.  Learned  men  among  the 
ancient  Greeks  had  known  it,  and  the  Arabians 
were  also  aware  of  the  true  form  of  the  earth. 
But  the  Europeans  of  Columbus's  day  were  ex- 
tremely ignorant,  and  believed  that  the  earth 
was  flat  and  circular  like  a  plate.  The  only 
parts  of  the  world  with  which  they  were  at  all 
acquainted  were  Europe,  the  British  Isles,  Ice- 
land, a  small  portion  of  Asia,  and  the  northern 
coast  of  Africa.  The  Atlantic  Ocean  was  called 
the  "  Sea  of  Darkness,"  and  was  thought  to 
abound  with  monsters  of  strange  and  hideous 
shape  capable  of  devouring  an  entire  ship  and 
crew  at  a  single  swallow. 

For  seventeen  years  Columbus  tried  to  inter- 
est the  people  of  Europe  in  his  theory,  but  they 
only  laughed  at  him,  called  him  crazy,  and  told 
him  that  if  he  sailed  very  far  into  the  Sea  of 
Darkness  he  would  fall  over  the  edge  of  the 
earth.  In  vain  he  tried  to  convince  the  kings  of 
Portugal  and  Spain  and  the  wealthy  nobles. 
They  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  a  man  who 
was  foolish  enough  to  believe  he  could  reach  the 
East  by  sailing  in  the  opposite  direction. 

Finally  Columbus  determined  to  ask  aid  of 
the  king  of  France.  He  was  slowly  making  his 
way  on  foot  to  the  French  court  when  he  stopped 


6      BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

at  the  close  of  a  summer  day  at  a  convent  in 
Andalusia  for  rest  and  refreshment.  The  prior 
of  the  convent  was  an  intelligent  and  kind- 
hearted  man.  He  became  interested  in  Colum- 
bus, advised  him  not  to  go  to  France,  but  to  try 
once  more  the  Spanish  court,  and  gave  him  a 
letter  to  an  influential  priest,  who  introduced  him 
to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  king  and  queen  of 
Spain.  The  queen  was  soon  persuaded.  She 
was  a  pious  Catholic,  and  saw  in  Columbus's 
scheme  an  opportunity  for  missionary  work 
among  heathen  people.  The  king  was  slower 
ito  respond.  He  was  also  a  Catholic,  though 
not  so  pious  as  his  wife,  and  the  missionary  idea 
did  not  appeal  to  him  with  striking  force.  But 
he  was  ambitious  to  extend  his  empire  and  to 
find  new  mines  of  gold  and  silver.  He  knew 
that  whatever  discoveries  Columbus  might  make 
would  belong  to  Spain  if  Columbus  sailed  under 
the  Spanish  flag.  Thus  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
working  from  quite  different  motives,  gave  Co- 
lumbus men  and  ships,  the  queen  even  pawning 
some  of  her  jewels  to  provide  necessary  funds. 

On  August  3,  1492,  Columbus  set  sail  from 
the  port  of  Palos,  within  sight  of  the  convent 
where  he  had  received  his  first  encouragement. 
His  fleet  consisted  of  three  small  vessels,  the 


DISCOVERY  7 

Santa  Maria,  Nina,  and  Pinta.  The  largest  was 
not  more  than  sixty  feet  long  by  twenty  in  width. 
For  days  and  weeks  Columbus  and  his  men 
sailed  on  into  the  Sea  of  Darkness.  The  world 
proved  very  much  larger  than  Columbus  had  sup- 
posed. The  sailors  became  terror-stricken  and 
begged  their  leader  to  turn  back.  At  last,  on  the 
night  of  October  nth,  they  saw  a  light  made 
by  the  fires  kindled  by  natives  on  the  land.  The 
next  morning  the  intrepid  admiral  and  his  crew 
stepped  ashore,  and  Columbus,  planting  the 
cross  and  the  flag  of  Spain  in  the  soil,  took 
possession  of  the  New  World.  The  land  on 
which  he  had  disembarked  was  one  of  the  islands 
of  the  Bahama  group.  Before  returning  to 
Spain  he  touched  at  Cuba  and  Hayti. 

Upon  his  arrival  in  Spain  Columbus  was  re- 
ceived with  every  mark  of  honor  by  sovereigns 
and  people.  He  made  three  more  voyages,  dis- 
covering Jamaica,  Puerto  Rico,  the  islands  of 
the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  the  mainland  of  South 
America,  and  exploring  the  coast  of  Honduras 
and  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  Columbus  was 
convinced  that  he  had  found  the  short  sea-pas- 
sage to  India  by  way  of  the  West.  For  this  rea- 
son he  called  the  islands  which  he  had  discov- 
ered the  West  Indies,  a  name  which  they  have 


8      BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

always  retained.  But  as  the  fabled  riches  of  the 
East  did  not  appear,  people  grew  impatient  and 
enthusiasm  turned  to  disappointment.  For  a 
time  Columbus  was  imprisoned  on  a  false 
charge,  and  finally  died  in  poverty  and  neglect 
on  May  20,  1506,  not  knowing  the  extent  and 
significance  of  his  achievement. 

Why  the  New  World  was  Called  America. — 
At  the  time  of  Columbus's  discovery  Spain  and 
Portugal  were  the  two  great  maritime  nations 
of  Europe.  Foreseeing  the  disputes  likely  to 
arise  concerning  the  possession  of  new  territory, 
these  nations  agreed  to  divide  in  advance  all  the 
unknown  regions  of  the  earth.  The  Pope,  who 
by  virtue  of  his  exalted  spiritual  office  frequently 
acted  as  arbiter  for  Christendom,  drew  a  me- 
ridian three  hundred  and  seventy  leagues  west  of 
the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  known  as  the  Line  of 
Demarcation.  All  lands  which  should  be  dis- 
covered east  of  that  boundary  were  to  belong  to 
Portugal,  and  all  west  of  it  to  Spain. 

About  the  year  1501  Portugal  sent  out  a  fleet 
under  the  command  of  Americus  Vespucius. 
He  sighted  the  coast  of  Brazil,  and,  finding  it 
east  of  the  Line,  claimed  it  for  Portugal.  A  few 
years  later  a  German  professor  published  a 
book  on  geography  in  which  he  proposed  that 


DISCOVERY  9 

Brazil  be  called  America  in  honor  of  Vespucius. 
As  Columbus  was  supposed  to  have  discovered 
merely  a  new  route  to  India,  not  a  new  conti- 
nent, the  idea  met  with  favor,  and  in  course  of 
time  the  name  was  applied  not  only  to  Brazil,  but 
to  all  North  and  South  America.  Brazil  was  the 
only  part  of  the  New  World  acquired  by  Portu- 
gal, because  it  was  the  only  part  that  lay  east  of 
the  Line  of  Demarcation. 

John  Cabot  and  the  English  Claim. — For  nearly 
a  century  after  the  voyages  of  Columbus,  Spain 
had  most  of  the  field  to  herself.  The  rest  of 
Europe  was  too  busy  with  other  affairs  to  quar- 
rel with  Spain  over  a  new  country.  In  1497 
England  sent  out  John  Cabot  "  to  discover  any 
heathen  regions  which  up  to  this  time  have  re- 
mained unknown  to  Christians."  He  was  the 
first  European  to  set  foot  on  the  continent  of 
North  America,  landing  in  Labrador.  England 
did  not  at  that  time  possess  sufficient  naval 
strength  to  enforce  her  rights  of  discovery,  and 
made  no  immediate  attempt  to  take  possession, 
but  many  years  later  the  English  claimed  the 
entire  North  American  continent  on  the  basis 
of  Cabot's  discovery. 

Spanish  Explorations  and  Conquests. — Spanish 
settlements  were  made  in  the  West  Indies,  and 


io    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

many  adventurers  went  far  into  the  mainland 
searching  for  El  Dorado,  the  gilded  land,  where 
according  to  current  belief  mines  of  gold  and 
silver  waited  to  lavish  their  bursting  treasures. 

On  Easter  Day,  1513,  Ponce  de  Leon,  a  Span- 
ish nobleman  who  was  looking  for  the  "  foun- 
tain of  youth,"  landed  on  the  coast  of  Florida. 
Intelligent  men  of  that  period  had  faith  in  many 
follies  of  imagination,  which  even  the  children 
of  this  day  know  better  than  to  credit.  De 
Leon  had  heard  and  believed  that  somewhere 
in  America  there  was  a  magic  fountain  whose 
waters  would  restore  youth  to  aged  men.  He 
called  the  country  Florida,  after  the  Spanish 
synonym  for  Easter — Pascua  Florida,  "  flowery 
passover." 

In  the  same  year  Balboa,  another  Spaniard, 
crossed  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  discovered 
the  Pacific  Ocean. 

In  1519  Cortez  with  a  small  army  invaded 
Mexico  and  conquered  that  country  for  Spain. 
By  1592  the  Spaniards  had  explored  the  Pacific 
coast  from  Lower  California  to  Oregon. 

In  1541  Ferdinando  De  Soto,  the  Spanish 
governor  of  Cuba,  while  on  an  expedition 
through  the  south-west,  discovered  the  Missis- 
sippi River. 


DISCOVERY  ii 

St.  Augustine,  the  oldest  city  in  the  United 
States,  was  founded  by  the  Spaniards  in  1565, 
to  prevent  the  French  from  making  settlements 
in  Florida. 

Why  North  America  did  not  Remain  Spanish. — 
Despite  a  full  century's  undisputed  right  of  way 
on  this  continent,  there  is  not  to-day  in  the  law, 
religion,  government,  or  other  social  institutions 
of  the  American  people  a  single  elemental  fact 
that  can  be  traced  to  the  authorship  or  moulding 
influence  of  Spain.  A  few  physical  landmarks, 
such  as  stone  houses,  walls,  and  cathedral  ruins, 
scattered  through  Florida  and  the  south-west, 
are  the  melancholy  vestiges  of  an  empire  long 
since  dissolved  in  the  testing  crucible  of  time. 
For  it  was  written  on  the  scroll  of  destiny  by 
immutable  decree  that  o'er  Columbia's  virgin 
soil  the  "  pale  emblem  of  Castilian  pride " 
should  never  wave  in  token  of  possession,  nor 
Spanish  sovereignty  find  enduring  foothold 
within  her  spacious  borders. 

The  trouble  was,  the  Spaniard  never  came 
here  for  a  wise  purpose.  Instead  of  bring- 
ing his  family  and  settling  down  to  clear  the 
wilderness,  till  the  soil,  and  grow  up  with  the 
country,  he  was  hunting  for  a  sudden  fortune 
which  would  enable  him  to  return  to  Spain  and 


12    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

spend  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  idleness 
and  ease.  The  followers  of  Cortez,  Balboa, 
and  De  Soto  were  adventurers  who  were  look- 
ing for  gold  and  silver. 

It  was  not  until  people  came  here  with  the  in- 
tention of  remaining  permanently,  people  who 
appreciated  the  value  of  agriculture,  industry, 
and  commerce,  that  the  foundations  of  the 
United  States  were  laid.  This  happened  when 
the  English,  Dutch,  Scotch,  and  Germans  be- 
gan their  settlements  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 
Their  conception  of  wealth  was  broader  and 
their  ideal  of  its  uses  nobler  than  the  Spaniard's 
sordid  purpose.  They  realized  that  true  wealth 
consists  not  in  abundance  of  gold  and  silver  coin- 
age, but  in  houses  and  lands,  in  farms,  shops, 
ships,  and  factories,  crowned  by  a  moral  exalta- 
tion that  finds  its  certain  measure  in  the  school- 
house  and  the  home. 

It  is  the  nation  which  produces  the  com- 
modities which  other  nations  want,  and  for 
which  they  are  willing  to  exchange  their  money 
that  is  truly  rich.  Neither  Spain  nor  the  rest 
of  Europe  derived  permanent  material  benefit 
from  the  finding  of  a  new  world.  In  many  re- 
spects they  were  worse  off  than  before,  for  the 
discovery  of  America  excited  the  spirit  of  greed, 


DISCOVERY  13 

created  jealousies  and  hatreds  between  nations, 
and  led  to  devastating  wars.  The  true  gainer 
was  America  itself.  In  the  course  of  time  it  re- 
ceived some  of  the  best  men  and  women  from 
the  best  countries  of  Europe.  They  came  to 
make  their  homes,  to  build  schools,  to  become 
farmers,  merchants,  inventors,  and  finally  to  in- 
fluence the  entire  human  race  toward  loftier 
manhood  and  a  wider  outlook  by  means  of  the 
freest  government  and  the  largest  opportunities 
the  world  has  ever  known. 

NOTE. — It  is  quite  probable  that  the  Northmen,  a  roving, 
piratical  people  from  the  north  of  Europe,  visited  America 
about  the  year  1000  A.D.  We  know  that  they  were  ac- 
quainted with  Greenland.  There  is  evidence  that  in  that 
year  Leif  Erikson — "Leif  the  Lucky" — led  an  expedition 
to  the  mainland.  A  temporary  settlement  called  Vinland 
was  made  by  the  Northmen  somewhere  on  the  New  England 
coast,  but  its  exact  situation  is  not  known.  The  visits  of  the 
Northmen  were  without  important  results.  No  one  else 
learned  from  them  of  the  existence  of  this  continent,  and  they 
themselves  seem  to  have  forgotten  it. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE   INDIANS 

THE    continents   of   North    and   South 
America  had  been  inhabited  for  many 
ages  before  the  arrival  of  Europeans. 
The  origin  of  this  early  race  is  unknown,  but 
there  are  certain  similarities  in  appearance,  lan- 
guage,   and  tradition   which   suggest  that  the 
American  aborigines  are  kindred  to  the  people 
of  Asia. 

That  the  inhabitants  of  the  New  World  were 
known  as  Indians  was  due  to  a  mistake  of 
Columbus  who,  thinking  that  he  had  reached 
India,  called  the  natives  Indians.  The  name 
has  clung  to  them  ever  since  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  men  soon  learned  that  America  was  not 
a  part  of  Asia. 

Appearance,  Character,  and  Government. — The 
Indians  had  strong,  lithe  bodies,  reddish  or 
copper-colored  skins,  high  cheek-bones,  and 
straight,  coarse,  black  hair.  They  had  no  beards. 
Hair  does  not  grow  on  the  face  of  the  American 

14 


THE  INDIANS  15 

aborigine.  They  were  swift  of  foot  and  keen 
of  vision,  and  could  track  an  enemy  through 
the  deepest  forest  by  the  print  of  his  foot  on 
the  grass  or  the  twigs  bent  by  the  weight  of 
his  passing  body.  They  were  fond  of  war 
and  were  revengeful,  never  forgiving  an  in- 
jury but  likewise  never  forgetting  an  act  of 
kindness. 

All  Indians  who  could  trace  descent  from  a 
common  female  ancestor  belonged  to  one  clan. 
Each  clan  had  its  own  magistrates  and  war- 
chiefs.  A  group  of  clans  formed  a  tribe,  the 
members  of  which  spoke  the  same  language. 
The  tribe  was  loosely  governed  by  a  council 
composed  of  the  chiefs  of  the  clans.  Its  de- 
cisions bound  nobody,  though  public  opinion 
usually  supported  them. 

Mode  of  Life. — The  Indians  were  wild  in 
their  nature  and  uncivilized  in  their  habits. 
Though  distributed  over  the  entire  continent, 
they  were  few  in  numbers  compared  with  the 
present  white  population.  There  were  only 
about  two  hundred  thousand  in  all  the  country 
east  of  the  Mississippi  River.  There  are  twice 
as  many  people  living  in  Philadelphia  to-day 
as  there  were  Indians  in  all  North  America  in 
1492.  The  Indians  lived  in  villages,  and  their 


16    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

dwellings  were  called  "  wigwams  "  or  "  tepees." 
These  consisted  of  small  huts  made  of  skin  or 
bark  stretched  over  wooden  frames.  They  were 
of  circular  form  at  the  base  and  either  pointed 
like  a  cone  or  rounded  like  a  dome  at  the  top. 
Sometimes  their  dwellings  were  made  of  logs. 
The  Iroquois  Indians  of  New  York  had  what 
they  called  "  long-houses,"  large  wooden  build- 
ings, a  hundred  feet  in  length,  divided  into 
twenty  compartments,  each  compartment  shelter- 
ing an  entire  family.  If  the  villages  were 
located  in  places  which  were  easy  to  attack  they 
were  surrounded  with  high  wooden  stockades  as 
a  protection  against  the  enemy. 

The  Indians  made  their  living  by  hunting, 
fishing,  and  agriculture.  Although  uncivilized, 
they  were  by  no  means  mere  savages.  They 
used  dishes  made  of  clay,  and  knew  much  more 
about  farming  than  is  generally  supposed,  rais- 
ing beans,  tobacco,  pumpkins,  squashes,  pota- 
toes, and  "  maize,"  or  Indian  corn.  It  was  from 
the  Indians  that  the  white  settlers  learned  the 
use  of  these  vegetables,  which  more  than  once 
saved  them  from  starvation.  Colored  shells, 
called  "  wampum,"  served  for  money.  The 
dress  of  the  Indians  varied  according  to  the  sea- 
son of  the  year.  In  summer  they  went  almost 


THE  INDIANS  17 

naked,  but  in  winter  they  clothed  themselves  in 
furs  and  blankets.  They  were  fond  of  gay  col- 
ors, of  ornaments,  and  amusements. 

The  Indian  boat  was  called  a  "  canoe."  It 
was  made  of  birch-bark  or  skins  stretched  over 
a  framework  of  wood,  and  fastened  together  by 
strips  of  hide  and  the  pitch  of  the  spruce-tree. 
The  red  men  were  good  athletes,  and  enjoyed 
running  races  and  playing  ball.  Lacrosse,  the 
favorite  game  of  modern  Canadians,  is  an  Ind- 
ian sport.  Hunting,  fishing,  and  war  were  the 
only  occupations  which  were  considered  worthy 
to  engage  the  attention  of  the  men.  Domestic 
labor  was  performed  by  the  women,  who  were 
called  "  squaws."  They  were  not  abused,  but 
had  their  rights  under  the  crude  Indian  law. 
The  women  of  the  Iroquois  nation  owned  land 
and  were  permitted  to  vote. 

The  natives  of  Mexico  and  Peru  were  supe- 
rior to  the  rest  of  the  Indians  of  North  and 
South  America.  The  Peruvians  especially  had 
buildings  and  roads,  possessed  rich  mines  of 
gold,  silver,  copper,  and  lead,  and  made  beauti- 
ful ornaments  of  the  precious  metals.  They 
pastured  vast  flocks  and  herds  and  had  an  ad- 
vanced language.  The  Mexicans,  though  less 
civilized  than  the  Peruvians,  were  in  advance  of 


18    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  other  tribes.  Both  Mexico  and  Peru  were 
cruelly  despoiled  by  the  Spaniards. 

Warfare. — The  Indians  were  never  so  happy 
as  when  on  the  war-path.  They  were  brave 
after  a  fashion,  but  their  method  of  fighting  was 
hardly  honorable,  judged  by  our  standards. 
They  preferred  to  lie  in  ambush  and  to  shoot 
their  enemies  from  behind  rocks  and  trees  rather 
than  to  meet  them  face  to  face.  Every  warrior 
shaved  his  head  except  a  place  at  the  top  about 
the  size  of  a  half-dollar,  on  which  the  long  hair 
was  allowed  to  remain.  This  single  wisp  of  hair 
was  called  the  "  scalp-lock."  When  an  Indian 
killed  his  enemy  in  battle  or  in  ambush  he  cut 
this  lock  of  hair  from  the  dead  man's  body,  to- 
gether with  that  part  of  the  scalp  to  which  it 
was  attached.  "  Scalps "  were  the  greatest 
trophies  of  war,  and  the  Indian  who  had  the 
largest  number  dangling  from  his  belt  was  re- 
garded as  the  best  warrior. 

Prisoners  of  war  were  generally  tortured  to 
death  by  all  sorts  of  inhuman  devices,  such  as 
sticking  splinters  of  burning  wood  in  the  flesh 
of  the  victim,  or  shooting  his  eyes  out,  or  tying 
him  to  a  stake  and  burning  him  alive.  The 
Indians  were  probably  no  more  cruel  than  other 
races  of  men,  though  their  lack  of  refinement 


THE  INDIANS  19 

made  them  appear  to  be.  It  was  under  the 
ordeal  of  torture  that  the  Indian  appeared  at 
his  best,  for  he  usually  died  without  a  cry  or  a 
murmur,  it  being  esteemed  great  heroism  to 
suffer  physical  pain  in  silence. 

The  weapons  of  the  Indian  were  the  hatchet, 
the  knife,  the  club,  the  lance,  and  the  bow  and 
arrow.  Stone  and  flint  were  used  in  making 
some  of  these  instruments  until  the  white  man 
introduced  better  weapons  of  steel. 

Religion. — The  Indians  worshipped  many 
gods.  Trees,  rocks,  plants,  animals,  and  the 
forces  of  nature  all  had  their  ruling  spirits 
whom  the  simple  minds  of  the  barbarians  were 
ever  fearful  of  offending  and  perpetually  sought 
to  placate  by  sacrifices  and  gifts.  The  priests  and 
doctors  were  called  "  medicine-men,"  and  were 
believed  to  have  great  power  with  spirits. 
When  an  Indian  died  he  was  supposed  to  go  to 
the  "  Happy  Hunting-ground."  In  order  to 
protect  and  feed  him  on  his  journey  into  the 
unseen  country,  his  relatives  placed  the  weapons 
of  the  dead  warrior  on  his  grave,  together  with 
dried  meat,  the  immaterial  counterparts  of 
which,  according  to  aboriginal  philosophy,  fur- 
nished defence  and  refreshment  to  the  travelling 
ghost. 


20    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Modern  Indian. — The  American  Indian  of 
to-day,  in  his  barbarian  state,  is  about  what  he 
was  four  hundred  years  ago.  Wherever  he  has 
come  into  touch  with  white  men  it  has  generally 
been  with  the  worst  sort  of  white  men,  and  the 
Indian  has  absorbed  the  vices  but  not  the  virtues 
of  his  conqueror. 

According  to  the  census  of  1900,  there  were 
266,760  Indians  in  the  United  States.  Nearly 
half  of  them  live  on  Government  reservations, 
and  are  fed  and  clothed  at  public  expense. 
These  "  reservation  Indians  "  are  not  progress- 
ing and  do  not  care  for  education.  Though  the 
Indian  does  not  seek  civilization,  many  have 
yielded  after  it  was  forced  upon  them,  and  some 
have  achieved  marked  success  in  professional  and 
literary  life. 

Many  children  are  taken  from  the  reserva- 
tions each  year  by  the  Government  and  placed  in 
Indian  industrial  schools,  the  most  celebrated  of 
which  is  at  Carlisle,  Pa. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES,   1607-1733 

WE  have  seen  that  the  Spaniards  were 
the   first  to   visit  and   explore  the 
Western  world.      In  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  the  French  began  their 
work  of  exploration  and  settlement  in  Canada. 
The  first  successful  French  colony  was  planted 
in  Acadia,  now  Nova  Scotia,  in  1605.    The  city 
of  Quebec  was  founded  three  years  later. 

The  voyage  of  Cabot  in  1497  resulted  in 
England's  claiming  the  entire  North  American 
continent  on  the  ground  that  Cabot  was  the  first 
European  to  reach  the  mainland.  This  claim 
had  never  been  abandoned,  although  no  attempt 
was  made  at  colonization  for  nearly  a  hundred 
years.  When  at  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  English  enterprise  turned  seri- 
ously to  America  it  found  the  southern  part  held 
by  Spain  and  the  northern  by  France.  But  in 
spite  of  her  tardiness  in  entering  the  race  for 
colonial  possessions  England  had  the  best  of  it, 

21 


22     BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

for  the  portion  that  fell  to  her  lot  was  the 
choicest  of  all.  It  lay  along  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board between  Florida  and  Nova  Scotia,  and 
had  every  advantage  of  climate,  fertility,  and 
natural  wealth.  The  thirteen  English  colonies 
planted  in  this  vast  central  region  developed 
later  into  the  United  States.  They  naturally  fall 
into  three  groups,  the  Southern,  Middle,  and 
New  England. 

Virginia  (1607). — This  name  was  given  in 
1584  to  all  the  English  territory  in  America  in 
honor  of  Elizabeth,  called  the  "  Virgin  Queen  " 
because  she  was  unmarried.  From  1584  to 
1587  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  made  several  attempts 
to  found  a  colony  at  Roanoke,  within  the  limits 
of  the  present  State  of  North  Carolina.  His 
efforts  failed  for  the  reason  that  he  had  no  finan- 
cial backing. 

In  1606  a  group  of  English  capitalists,  be- 
lieving that  a  successful  colony  could  be  found- 
ed, provided  there  was  plenty  of  money  behind 
it,  organized  the  London  Company  and  ob- 
tained from  King  James  I  a  charter  which  gave 
them  authority  to  make  settlements  in  the  south- 
ern half  of  what  is  now  the  United  States.  The 
London  Company  at  once  sent  out  a  hundred  or 
more  colonists  under  the  command  of  Captain 


THE   SOUTHERN   COLONIES,    1607-1733     23 

John  Smith,  an  English  adventurer  of  extraordi- 
nary abilities.  They  reached  America  in  the 
spring  of  1607,  and  settled  at  Jamestown,  Va., 
which  they  named  in  honor  of  the  reigning  king. 
This  was  the  first  permanent  English  colony  in 
America. 

The  settlers  were  not  well  fitted  for  so  serious 
an  undertaking  as  the  establishment  of  a  colony. 
Most  of  them  were  "  gentlemen,"  which  in  that 
day  signified  persons  of  the  male  sex  who  never 
worked.  There  were  only  about  a  dozen  in  the 
whole  number  who  had  ever  done  any  manual 
labor.  The  colonists  quarrelled  among  them- 
selves and  with  the  Indians,  and  many  died  of 
sickness.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  wisdom  of 
Captain  John  Smith,  and  a  timely  reenforce- 
ment  from  England,  they  would  have  abandoned 
the  enterprise.  But  with  the  arrival  of  other 
settlers,  who  knew  more  about  practical  affairs 
than  the  first,  the  colony  took  courage  and  soon 
grew  prosperous.  The  London  Company  au- 
thorized the  popular  election  of  a  House  of 
Burgesses  to  make  laws  for  the  community. 
Virginia  raised  large  quantities  of  tobacco  which 
were  exported  to  England.  The  habit  of  smok- 
ing had  been  introduced  into  that  country  by 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  who  had  learned  it  from  the 


24    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Indians.  It  became  so  popular  that  Virginia 
was  kept  busy  supplying  the  English  demand  for 
tobacco. 

The  Beginning  of  Slavery. — Toiling  all  day  in 
the  tobacco  fields  under  a  blazing  sun  was  too  irk- 
some for  white  men.  In  1619  the  Treasurer, 
an  English  privateer,  called  in  the  slang  phrase 
of  the  day  a  "  Dutch  man-o'-war,"  appeared  in 
Jamestown  harbor  with  a  cargo  of  twenty 
negroes,  which  the  captain  offered  to  dispose  of 
in  exchange  for  provisions.  The  negroes  proved 
to  be  just  the  kind  of  laborers  needed  for  heavy 
out-of-door  work.  This  was  the  origin  of  Afri- 
can slavery  in  the  United  States.  For  many 
years  a  horrible  trade  in  human  beings  was  car- 
ried on  between  the  American  colonies  and  deal- 
ers who  made  a  business  of  stealing  black  men 
and  women  from  Africa  to  supply  the  demand 
for  negro  laborers.  At  first  slavery  existed  in 
nearly  all  the  colonies,  but  later  it  became  con- 
fined to  the  South. 

The  negroes  introduced  by  the  Treasurer 
were  not  strictly  slaves  but  servants.  They  were 
not  owned  by  individuals,  but  were  employed  by 
the  public,  and  were  paid  wages.  In  the  course 
of  a  very  few  years,  however,  this  form  of  servi- 
tude passed  into  slavery.  It  is  noteworthy  that 


THE   SOUTHERN   COLONIES,    1607-1733      25 

colonial  Virginia  was  the  first  community  in  the 
civilized  world  to  legislate  against  the  slave- 
trade.  Her  opposition,  expressed  in  thirty-three 
acts  of  assembly  passed  prior  to  1772,  proved 
futile  because  the  traffic  was  profitable  to  Eng- 
land, which  continued  it  in  spite  of  protest. 

Virginia  was  governed  by  the  London  Com- 
pany until  1624,  when  it  became  a  royal  colony 
governed  by  the  king  through  officials  whom  he 
appointed,  although  to  a  great  extent  the  peo- 
ple continued  to  manage  their  own  affairs.  They 
had  a  strong  spirit  of  independence  which  led 
them  to  expel  a  governor  because  they  were  dis- 
satisfied with  his  rule. 

When  the  English  Puritans  executed  Charles 
I  in  1 648, many  of  the  "  Cavaliers,"  as  the  king's 
followers  were  called,  took  refuge  in  Virginia. 
Their  coming  greatly  improved  the  character  of 
the  colony,  for  they  were  men  of  education  and 
wealth.  They  built  magnificent  houses  and  de- 
voted themselves  to  politics.  But  the  great  mass 
of  people  were  ignorant  and  without  influence  in 
public  affairs.  Said  Governor  Berkeley  in  1671 : 
"  I  thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools  nor 
printing-presses  in  Virginia."  The  sons  of  rich 
planters  were  sent  abroad  to  be  educated,  but  the 
sons  of  poor  men  were  not  educated  at  all.  In 


26    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

1693  the  colonial  legislature  of  Virginia  estab- 
lished the  College  of  William  and  Mary  for  the 
education  of  the  scions  of  wealthy  families. 

Maryland  (1634). — As  Virginia  was  a  royal 
colony,  the  king  could  do  with  it  as  he  pleased. 
Charles  I  was  pleased  to  cut  off  a  portion,  which 
he  gave  to  his  friend  Cecil  Calvert,  Lord  Balti- 
more, who  named  it  Maryland  in  honor  of 
Queen  Henrietta  Maria.  In  those  days  people 
of  different  religions  hated  and  persecuted  each 
other  with  a  bitterness  incomprehensible  in  this 
age.  England  was  a  Protestant  country,  and 
the  government  passed  severe  prescriptive  laws 
against  Roman  Catholics.  Lord  Baltimore  was 
a  Catholic  and  desired  to  found  a  colony  where 
his  co-religionists  could  worship  in  their  own 
way.  But  he  was  liberal-minded  and  allowed 
Protestants  also  to  settle  in  Maryland.  In  fact, 
he  could  not  have  done  otherwise,  being  the  sub- 
ject of  a  Protestant  king.  Until  Pennsylvania 
was  founded  Maryland  was  the  only  place  in 
the  civilized  world  where  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants dwelt  together  in  harmony.  Later  the 
Protestants  found  themselves  in  the  majority, 
and  then  they  legislated  against  the  Catholics. 

In  government  Maryland  was  a  proprietary 
colony;  that  is,  the  proprietor  or  owner  was 


THE   SOUTHERN  COLONIES,    1607-1733      27 

given  authority  by  the  crown  to  rule  the  col- 
ony as  though  it  were  a  kingdom  under  his  own 
administration.  He  could  make  any  laws  he 
might  desire,  with  the  consent  of  the  people, 
provided  they  were  not  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
England. 

The  Carolinas  (1663)  were  cut  from  the  origi- 
nal territory  of  Virginia  and  given  to  favorites 
of  Charles  II.  At  first  there  was  but  one  col- 
ony of  that  name,  including  the  present  States 
of  North  and  South  Carolina  and  a  large  part 
of  Georgia,  but  in  1729  the  proprietors  sold  it 
to  King  George  II,  who  divided  it  into  two  royal 
provinces,  North  and  South  Carolina.  The  peo- 
ple were  of  mixed  nationality,  English,  Scotch- 
Irish,  French,  and  Dutch,  very  thrifty  and  pros- 
perous. It  was  a  fine  agricultural  region  with 
a  mild  climate  and  a  rich  soil. 

Georgia  (1733)  was  founded  by  General  James 
Oglethorpe,  a  member  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment and  a  very  brave  and  honorable  man. 
Under  the  severe  English  laws  of  that  day  peo- 
ple who  owed  money  which  they  could  not  pay 
were  thrown  into  jail.  Not  less  than  four 
thousand  impecunious  debtors  were  imprisoned 
every  year  in  England.  The  jails  were  wretched 
places,  unfit  for  any  human  being.  General 


28    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Oglethorpe  desired  to  carry  the  most  deserving 
of  these  unfortunate  debtors  to  America,  where 
they  might  have  a  new  start  in  life.  In  1732 
the  king  gave  a  portion  of  South  Carolina  to 
General  Oglethorpe  and  a  few  other  persons 
under  a  charter  which  vested  them  with  propri- 
etary rights,  although  they  were  not  to  hold  the 
colony  for  themselves,  but  "  in  trust  for  the 
poor."  It  was  called  Georgia  in  honor  of  the 
king,  George  II,  and  the  first  settlement  was 
made  at  Savannah  in  1733.  The  early  colonists 
were  not  all  poor  English  debtors.  Many  well- 
to-do  Scotch,  Germans,  and  Italians  also  went 
there  to  live. 

Georgia  remained  under  the  government  of 
the  trustees  until  1752,  when  it  became  a 
royal  colony  with  a  governor  appointed  by 
the  king.  It  was  the  last  of  the  thirteen  colo- 
nies planted  by  England  within  the  present  lim- 
its of  the  United  States,  and  the  only  one  where 
slavery  and  the  importation  of  intoxicating 
liquors  were  originally  prohibited.  A  few  years 
later  in  obedience  to  popular  demand  both  pro- 
hibitions were  removed. 


CHAPTER    IV 
THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES,    1620-91 

THERE  were  many  people  in  England 
who  did  not  approve  of  the  Es- 
tablished Church,  as  the  Episcopal 
Church  was  called.  They  thought  it  resembled 
too  much  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  of  which 
it  had  once  been  a  part.  Some  wished  to  leave 
it  and  to  form  a  new  sect;  these  persons  were 
called  "  Separatists."  Others  desired  simply  to 
make  certain  changes  in  the  mode  of  worship, 
to  "  purify  "  it,  as  they  said;  they  were  known 
as  "  Puritans." 

As  the  Church  and  the  Government  sup- 
ported each  other  the  reformers  brought  upon 
themselves  the  enmity  of  both.  In  order  to 
escape  persecution  a  party  of  Separatists  in 
1608  fled  to  Holland,  at  that  time  the  most 
enlightened  country  in  Europe.  But  they  were 
English  at  heart,  who  loved  their  home,  even 
though  they  could  not  live  there.  Fearing  that 
their  children  would  grow  up  to  speak  the  Dutch 

29 


30    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

language,  to  follow  the  Dutch  customs,  and  to 
love  Holland  better  than  England  they  deter- 
mined to  go  to  America  and  found  a  new  state, 
where  they  could  worship  as  they  pleased  and 
where  their  children  could  mature  into  Eng- 
lishmen. 

Massachusetts  (1620). — In  September,  1620, 
a  small  vessel  named  the  Mayflower,  having  on 
board  one  hundred  and  two  Separatists  under 
the  leadership  of  William  Bradford,  William 
Brewster,  and  Miles  Standish,  sailed  for  Amer- 
ica. On  December  2ist,  after  a  stormy  voyage 
of  more  than  two  months,  they  disembarked  on 
the  ice-fringed  coast  of  Massachusetts,  and  made 
a  settlement  at  Plymouth.  Before  landing,  the 
men,  forty-one  in  number,  drew  up  and  signed 
the  famous  "  Mayflower  Compact,"  by  which 
they  bound  themselves  to  make  and  obey  their 
own  laws.  It  was  not  a  declaration  of  indepen- 
dence from  England,  for  in  the  same  document 
they  acknowledged  the  king  as  their  sovereign, 
but  it  meant  that  they  were  determined  to  have 
a  larger  measure  of  self-government  than  they 
had  ever  enjoyed  in  England.  The  colony 
founded  by  the  Separatists  received  the  name  of 
"  Plymouth  Plantation. "  Its  founders  are  gen- 
erally known  as  the  "  Pilgrim  Fathers."  The 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES,   1620-91     31 

first  winter  was  marked  by  terrible  suffering. 
Half  the  colony  perished.  At  one  time  there 
were  but  six  or  seven  persons  able  to  be  up  and 
doing.  But  in  spite  of  their  distress  not  one 
thought  of  returning  to  England  or  to  Holland. 

Not  only  the  Separatists,  but  the  Puritans  as 
well,  were  persecuted  by  the  Government  and 
the  Church  of  England.  In  1628  a  company  of 
them  settled  at  Salem.  Two  years  later  a  large 
number  of  wealthy  and  prominent  Puritans 
founded  the  city  of  Boston.  Others  followed, 
and  by  1634  there  were  four  thousand  Puritans 
in  America.  Their  settlements  collectively  re- 
ceived the  name  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony. 
In  1691  the  Plymouth  Colony  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  Colony  united.  As  the  Puritan 
community  was  the  larger  and  more  important 
of  the  two  it  retained  its  own  name,  and  both 
were  henceforth  known  as  the  single  colony  of 
Massachusetts  Bay. 

Although  the  Puritans  and  Pilgrims  came  to 
America  to  find  civil  and  religious  liberty  they 
refused  to  extend  to  others  the  rights  which  they 
demanded  for  themselves.  Instead  of  allowing 
freedom  to  all  men  they  passed  severe  laws 
against  Episcopalians,  Roman  Catholics,  and 
Quakers.  They  established  a  state  church,  and 


32    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

no  one  was  allowed  to  vote  in  a  civil  election 
who  did  not  belong  to  this  church.  The  cut  and 
fashion  of  men's  and  women's  garments  were 
fixed  by  law.  Non-attendance  at  religious  ser- 
vice was  punished  by  fine,  imprisonment,  or  pub- 
lic whipping.  The  result  was  that  while  public 
order  was  good  and  morality  high,  Massa- 
chusetts was  the  most  intolerant  colony  in  all 
America. 

Yet  the  Puritans  were  men  of  honor,  con- 
scientious, brave,  and  upright.  They  were  firm 
believers  in  education.  The  oldest  and  greatest 
university  in  America  is  Harvard,  founded  by 
the  Puritans  in  1636  for  the  training  of  the 
clergy  before  the  wilderness  had  been  cleared  or 
the  red  man  driven  West. 

Rhode  Island  (1636). — Among  those  who  dif- 
fered from  the  Puritans  in  point  of  view  was  a 
young  minister,  Roger  Williams.  He  believed 
in  tolerating  other  sects  and  in  keeping  state 
and  church  separate,  for  he  had  seen  the  mis- 
chief that  had  resulted  from  their  union  both 
in  Europe  and  in  Massachusetts.  For  these  the- 
ories he  was  banished  from  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colony. 

Such  treatment  seems  harsh  to  the  modern 
mind,  but  it  was  the  habit  of  a  severe  and 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES,   1620^91      33 

orthodox  age  when  men  took  their  religion 
on  faith  and  with  desperate  seriousness.  Had 
Roger  Williams  lived  in  Europe  he  might 
have  fared  worse.  For  a  while  he  took  refuge 
with  the  Indians  of  Narragansett  Bay,  where 
he  founded  the  city  of  Providence  in  1636. 
Williams's  colony  in  course  of  time  developed 
into  the  State  of  Rhode  Island. 

Connecticut  (1636).— At  about  the  same  time 
that  Roger  Williams  settled  Providence  several 
other  citizens  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony, 
who  thought  it  unjust  to  debar  a  man  from  vot- 
ing or  holding  office  simply  because  he  was  not 
a  member  of  a  particular  church,  moved  into 
Connecticut  and  founded  the  towns  of  Windsor, 
Wethersfield,  and  Hartford.  In  1639  these 
three  towns  united  and  formed  a  miniature  re- 
public under  a  written  constitution  called  the 
Fundamental  Orders  of  Connecticut,  which 
remained  in  force  one  hundred  and  eighty 
years. 

Connecticut  was  the  first  republic  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  to  be  founded  by  a  written  con- 
stitution. The  influence  of  the  Fundamental 
Orders  is  apparent  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  to  a  degree  unparalleled  by  any 
other  colonial  instrument. 


34    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

In  1643  New  Haven  and  three  neighbor- 
ing towns  united  in  a  similar  republic  and 
took  the  name  of  the  New  Haven  Colony. 
It  remained  independent  until  1662,  when  it 
was  annexed  to  Connecticut  by  order  of  King 
Charles  II. 

New  Hampshire  (1691)  at  first  included  what  is 
now  the  State  of  New  Hampshire  and  a  part  of 
Maine.  This  whole  territory  was  granted  by 
King  James  I  in  1622  to  two  English  gentlemen. 
Maine  later  became  a  part  of  Massachusetts. 
New  Hampshire  was  twice  united  with  Massa- 
chusetts, but  finally  became  a  separate  royal 
province  in  1691. 

King  Philip's  War. — The  New  England  colo- 
nies had  almost  continuous  trouble  with  the  Ind- 
ians. In  1675  King  Philip,  the  war-chief  of 
the  Wampanoags,  united  all  the  tribes  from 
Maine  to  New  York  for  the  purpose  of  driving 
out  the  white  men  who  were  steadily  pushing 
the  Indians  away  from  the  haunts  of  their 
fathers.  The  war  lasted  two  years,  until  the 
death  of  Philip,  who  was  shot  as  he  was  trying 
to  escape  from  a  force  which  had  surrounded 
his  dwelling  at  Mount  Hope,  near  Bristol, 
R.  I.  His  followers  were  killed  or  sold  into 
slavery,  and  the  power  of  the  New  England 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES,   1620-91     35 

tribes  was  forever  destroyed.  About  six  hun- 
dred white  men  were  killed  in  battle  during 
King  Philip's  War,  besides  a  vast  number  of 
men,  women,  and  children  who  were  massacred 
or  died  of  starvation. 


CHAPTER    V 
THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES,  1664-81 

IT  will  be  remembered  that  the  discovery  of 
the  Cape  route  conferred  a  monopoly  of 
the  Oriental  trade  upon  Portugal  and 
Spain.  For  many  years  it  was  the  dream  of 
commercial  Europe  to  obviate  the  dangers  of 
the  voyage  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  by 
the  discovery  of  a  shorter  sea-passage  to  India. 
By  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
Eastern  trade  had  passed  from  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal to  Holland.  It  was  now  for  the  interest 
of  the  Dutch  to  find  that  quicker  route  which 
had  eluded  earlier  efforts. 

New  York  (1664).— In  1609  the  Dutch  East 
India  Company  sent  out  Captain  Henry  Hud- 
son in  the  ship  Half  Moon  to  search  for  a  new 
water-way  to  the  East,  which  it  was  believed 
would  be  found  to  cut  through  the  northern 
part  of  North  America.  Of  course  Hudson 
did  not  reach  India,  but  he  discovered  the  beau- 
tiful river  which  bears  his  name.  He  also  dis- 
covered that  a  fur  trade  carried  on  between  the 

36 


THE    MIDDLE    COLONIES,    1664-81         37 

Dutch  and  the  Indians  would  be  quite  as  profit- 
able to  Holland  as  the  silk  trade  in  the  East. 
With  this  object  in  view  the  Dutch  West  India 
Company  was  organized  by  the  merchants  of 
Amsterdam.  This  company  claimed  in  the  name 
of  Holland  all  the  country  between  the  Connecti- 
cut and  Delaware  rivers,  to  which  it  gave  the 
name  New  Netherland.  The  principal  Dutch 
settlement  was  New  Amsterdam,  founded  on 
Manhattan  Island  in  1626.  The  Dutch  colo- 
nists were  governed  by  upatroons,"  wealthy  land- 
owners, resembling  in  their  powers  the  proprie- 
tors of  Maryland  and  the  Carolinas,  only  instead 
of  being  ruled  by  one,  the  territory  was  divided 
among  many  patroons.  This  system  was  not 
favorable  to  the  growth  of  democratic  sentiment 
and  habits.  Fortunately  it  did  not  last  long, 
though  traces  of  it  lingered  until  after  the  Revo- 
lution. The  first  free  public  schools  in  America 
were  founded  by  the  Dutch  of  New  York. 

In  1664  England  acquired  New  Netherland 
by  a  treaty  with  Holland,  and  thus  became  pos- 
sessed of  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Maine  to 
Georgia.  The  former  Dutch  territory  was  given 
to  the  king's  brother,  James,  Duke  of  York. 
Both  the  province  of  New  Netherland  and  the 
city  of  New  Amsterdam  were  renamed  New 


38    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

York  in  honor  of  their  royal  proprietor.  The 
English  abolished  the  patroon  system  and  intro- 
duced the  principle  of  self-government  by  means 
of  town  meetings  and  popular  elections.  When 
the  Duke  of  York  succeeded  to  the  English 
throne  as  James  II,  New  York  became  a  crown 
province. 

New  Jersey  (1664). — The  Duke  of  York  gave 
a  part  of  his  new  province  to  his  two  friends, 
Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Carteret.  Al- 
though a  proprietary  colony  until  1702,  when  it 
passed  to  the  crown,  New  Jersey  enjoyed  a  large 
measure  of  self-government.  Its  early  history 
is  uninteresting  and  of  small  importance.  The 
northern  portion  was  first  settled  by  the  Dutch. 
Germans  and  Swedes  were  scattered  here  and 
there,  but  the  history  of  the  colony  properly  be- 
gins with  its  occupation  by  the  English,  who 
mainly  comprised  the  population. 

Farming  was  the  sole  occupation  of  the  peo- 
ple of  New  Jersey.  There  was  no  commerce, 
the  people  depending  upon  New  York  and  Vir- 
ginia to  supply  its  miscellaneous  needs. 

Pennsylvania  (1681). — The  colonial  history  of 
Pennsylvania,  like  that  of  Massachusetts,  Con- 
necticut, Rhode  Island,  and  Maryland,  is  insep- 
arably linked  with  religious  associations.  About 


THE    MIDDLE    COLONIES,   1664-81         39 

the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  sect  of 
Quakers,  or  Society  of  Friends,  sprang  up  in 
England.  Its  members  believed  that  God  made 
known  His  will  to  every  man's  heart  without  the 
aid  of  popes,  bishops,  priests,  or  pastors ;  there- 
fore every  man  should  be  free  to  choose  his  own 
religion  without  interference  from  church  or 
state.  They  believed  in  the  equality  of  mankind, 
and  expressed  this  belief  by  adopting  simplicity 
in  dress,  language,  and  manners,  and  in  treating 
all  human  beings  with  equal  politeness ;  not  mak- 
ing an  exception  of  the  king,  in  whose  presence 
other  men  removed  their  hats.  They  disap- 
proved of  war  under  any  and  all  circumstances 
and  of  many  other  practices  which,  though  sanc- 
tioned by  authority,  appeared  to  them  opposed 
to  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 

But  the  essential  point  of  difference  between 
the  Quakers  and  most  religious  organizations 
of  their  time  is  that  while  the  others  invaria- 
bly attempted,  as  soon  as  they  became  strong 
enough,  to  force  their  doctrines  and  practices 
upon  the  rest  of  the  community,  the  Quakers 
showed  no  desire  to  interfere  with  the  rights 
of  those  who  differed  from  them  in  belief. 
The  Quaker  spirit  of  independence  was  resented 
by  the  Established  Church,  which  persecuted 


40    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  Friends,  as  it  had  the  Puritans  and  the 
Separatists,  with  great  severity. 

Among  the  converts  to  Quakerism  was  Will- 
iam Penn,  a  young  man  twenty  years  of  age,  the 
son  of  an  admiral  in  the  British  Navy.  He  was 
wealthy,  educated,  refined,  and  intelligent,  far 
above  his  spiritual  mentors  in  social  rank.  The 
University  of  Oxford  promptly  expelled  him 
from  its  roll  of  students  for  refusing  to  attend 
the  services  of  the  Church  of  England.  His 
father  sent  him  abroad  in  the  hope  that  the  gay 
life  of  Paris  would  cure  his  son  of  his  Quaker 
ideas.  But  the  young  man  returned  more  than 
ever  convinced  of  their  truth,  and  wrote  many 
pamphlets  in  defence  of  Quaker  beliefs,  for 
which  he  suffered  imprisonment  four  times. 

In  1670  Admiral  Penn  died.  During  his  life- 
time he  had  loaned  the  king,  Charles  II,  a  great 
deal  of  money,  which  his  Majesty  had  never 
taken  the  trouble  to  repay.  William  Penn,  hav- 
ing in  mind  the  purpose  of  founding  in  America 
a  colony  where  all  Christians  might  dwell  to- 
gether on  the  basis  of  the  Golden  Rule,  signified 
his  willingness,  as  the  heir,  to  receive  instead  of 
cash  a  tract  of  land  in  full  discharge  of  the  debt 
due  the  paternal  creditor.  The  king  was  glad  to 
get  off  so  easily,  for  he  had  extravagant  habits 


THE    MIDDLE    COLONIES,   1664-81         41 

and  required  all  his  money  for  personal  pleas- 
ures. 

In  1 68 1  a  charter  was  given  to  William  Penn 
conveying  to  him  a  vast  estate  in  America  and 
making  him  the  "  true  and  absolute  proprietary 
of  the  country,"  with  power  to  enact  laws,  create 
courts,  and  appoint  judges. 

Penn  at  once  sent  out  several  hundred  emi- 
grants to  Pennsylvania,  and  the  next  year  he  him- 
self followed  with  nearly  a  hundred  Quakers. 

Although  Penn  had  received  his  province  in 
legal  form  from  the  king  he  chose  to  consider 
the  rights  of  the  red  men.  Shortly  after  his 
arrival  he  met  the  Indians  in  council  under  a 
large  elm-tree,  and  there  bought  the  land  from 
them  on  their  own  terms.  A  treaty  of  friend- 
ship was  made  between  the  Indians  and  the  pro- 
prietor, which  remained  unbroken  as  long  as  the 
Quakers  held  control  of  Pennsylvania. 

William  Penn  was  not  ambitious  for  personal 
power  or  distinction.  His  sole  design  was  to 
found  a  commonwealth  where  all  Christians  of 
whatever  sect  could  dwell  together  in  peace.  In 
order  to  insure  the  largest  measure  of  freedom 
for  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  he  drew  up  the 
"  Frame  of  Government,"  by  which  he  volun- 
tarily limited  forever  both  his  own  power  and 


42    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

that  of  the  proprietors  who  should  succeed 
him.  "  I  propose,"  said  he,  "  to  leave  myself 
and  my  successors  no  power  of  doing  mischief; 
so  that  the  will  of  one  man  may  not  hinder  the 
good  of  the  whole  country."  It  granted  liberty 
of  conscience  to  all  who  believed  in  one  Almighty 
God,  but  limited  the  right  to  vote  and  to  hold 
office  to  those  who  professed  some  form  of  Prot- 
estant Christianity.  The  influence  of  the  Frame 
of  Government  may  be  seen  in  the  four  subse- 
quent constitutions  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
in  the  constitutions  of  other  States,  and  to  some 
extent  in  the  Federal  Constitution  itself. 

Philadelphia  was  founded  in  1682.  The 
name  is  of  Greek  derivation,  signifying  "  broth- 
erly love,"  and  well  illustrates  the  liberal  prin- 
ciples which  inspired  the  acts  of  William  Penn 
and  his  Quaker  followers.  Pennsylvania  was 
the  freest,  the  most  democratic,  the  most  pros- 
perous colony  in  America.  Philadelphia  grew 
rapidly,  and  until  after  the  Revolution  was  the 
largest  and  most  important  city  in  the  colonies. 

The  People. — A  colony  possessing  such  ex- 
traordinary advantages  could  not  fail  to  attract 
universal  attention.  The  soil  was  fertile,  the 
government  free,  and  religious  liberty  prevailed. 
From  many  lands  men  and  women  came  to  en- 


THE    MIDDLE    COLONIES,   1664-81         43 

joy  the  benefits  of  Penn's  commonwealth.  Vol- 
taire thought  seriously  of  migrating  thither,  de- 
claring that  it  was  "  the  only  place  on  earth 
where  peace  had  fled,  banished  as  she  was  from 
every  other  region." 

The  first  people  to  settle  in  Pennsylvania 
after  the  Quakers  were  the  Germans.  They 
made  very  desirable  colonists,  being  honest,  in- 
telligent, thrifty,  and  peaceable.  They  were  ex- 
cellent farmers  and  business  men.  Some  of 
them  owned  printing  establishments  and  pub- 
lished books  and  periodicals.  The  first  Bible 
printed  in  the  United  States  in  a  civilized  lan- 
guage was  a  German  Bible  issued  by  a  German- 
town  publisher  in  1743,  thirty-nine  years  before 
the  first  English  Bible  was  printed  in  any  British 
colony. 

The  Scotch-Irish  were  people  of  Scotch  de- 
scent living  in  the  north  of  Ireland.  They  were 
Presbyterian  in  faith,  and  came  to  America  soon 
after  the  Quakers  to  escape  the  intolerant  treat- 
ment of  the  Church  of  England.  Being  of 
aggressive  temperament,  fond  of  danger  and  ex- 
citement, they  settled  on  the  frontier.  They  be- 
lieved that  the  best  way  to  deal  with  the  Indians 
was  to  fight  them,  not  to  adopt  the  friendly  fash- 
ion of  the  Quakers.  At  least  seven  presidents 


44    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  the  United  States  have  been  of  Scotch-Irish 
descent. 

Besides  the  English,  Germans,  and  Scotch- 
Irish  there  were  Dutch,  French  Huguenots,  and 
Welshman,  and  in  the  Wyoming  Valley  a  con- 
siderable number  of  New  Englanders.  As  the 
years  passed  foreign  immigration  continued  to 
increase.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary 
War  Pennsylvania  had  a  larger  variety  of  na- 
tionalities than  was  to  be  found  in  any  other  col- 
ony. Notwithstanding  the  diversity  of  race,  lan- 
guage, and  religion  the  people  lived  together  in 
harmony  and  good-will.  The  very  fact  that 
there  were  so  many  nationalities  and  religious 
sects  made  it  impossible  for  any  one  of  them  to 
frame  or  administer  laws  in  its  own  behalf  or 
to  tyrannize  over  the  others. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  first  organized 
protest  against  slavery  was  uttered  in  a  paper 
drawn  up  by  the  Mennonites  of  Germantown  in 
1688.  At  a  later  date  (1776)  the  Pennsylvania 
Quakers  ordered  all  members  of  their  society  to 
free  their  slaves.  It  was  largely  due  to  the  de- 
termined stand  of  the  Quakers  that  the  first 
emancipation  act  in  the  history  of  the  world — 
so  far  as  African  slavery  is  concerned — was 
passed  by  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature  in  1780. 


THE    MIDDLE    COLONIES,   1664-81         45 

Pennsylvania  remained  under  the  proprietary 
government  of  the  Penn  family  until  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  when  the  State  purchased  the  in- 
terests of  the  heirs. 

Delaware — the  "  Territories  of  Pennsylvania  " 
(1682).  —  In  1638  the  Swedes,  desiring  to  get  a 
foothold  in  North  America,  made  a  settlement 
on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Wilmington, 
Del.,  and  claimed  an  extensive  area  which  they 
called  New  Sweden.  In  1655  the  Dutch  con- 
quered New  Sweden,  which  then  became  a  part 
of  New  Netherland.  When  New  Netherland 
was  annexed  by  the  English,  Delaware  became 
a  part  of  New  York. 

In  1682  William  Penn,  desiring  to  obtain  for 
his  province  a  frontage  on  the  Atlantic,  pur- 
chased the  "  Three  Counties,"  as  Delaware  was 
then  called,  and  annexed  them  to  Pennsylvania 
under  the  name  of  the  "  Territories  of  Pennsyl- 
vania." The  people  were  granted  a  liberal 
charter  similar  to  the  Frame  of  Government, 
but  acknowledged  the  same  executive  head.  The 
'*  Territories  "  continued  to  be  a  part  of  the 
province  of  Pennsylvania  until  1776,  when  they 
declared  their  independence  and  entered  into  a 
separate  political  existence  as  the  State  of  Dela- 
ware. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

THE  French  and  Indian  War  was  sim- 
ply a  phase  of  the  great  Seven  Years' 
War,  which  involved  most  of  the  na- 
tions of  Europe  from  1756  to  1763  and  in 
which  France  and  England  played  leading  parts 
on  opposite  sides.  As  between  these  two  na- 
tions, the  field  of  strife  included  not  only  Eu- 
rope, but  America  and  distant  India.  That  part 
of  the  struggle  which  took  place  in  America  we 
call  the  French  and  Indian  War,  because  the 
Indians  as  a  general  rule  allied  themselves  with 
the  French.  But  the  Indians  played  a  second- 
ary part.  It  was  a  conflict  for  the  control  of 
North  America  between  two  great  empires  rep- 
resenting opposite  principles  of  social  organiza- 
tion, of  government,  and  of  religion. 

England  and  France  had  been  enemies  for 
many  centuries.  Before  the  Seven  Years'  War 
they  had  fought  for  the  possession  of  American 
territory.  From  1689  to  1748  there  were  three 

46 


THE    FRENCH    AND    INDIAN   WAR         47 

European  wars  between  these  nations,  and  each 
had  its  counterpart  in  America.  In  1713 
France  surrendered  Acadia  (Nova  Scotia), 
Newfoundland,  and  Hudson  Bay  to  England. 

These  colonial  wars  are  known  as  King  Will- 
iam's, Queen  Anne's,  and  King  George's  wars, 
deriving  their  names  from  the  sovereigns  of 
England  during  whose  reigns  they  took  place. 
They  were  merely  forerunners  of  the  great  de- 
cisive struggle  which  was  to  determine  whether 
the  future  civilization  of  America  would  be  Eng- 
lish or  French. 

It  was  after  the  close  of  King  George's  War 
that  the  tragic  expulsion  of  the  Acadians  oc- 
curred. When  Great  Britain  acquired  Nova 
Scotia  in  1713  the  French  inhabitants  refused  to 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  their  conquerors. 
They  were  a  peaceful  and  contented  people 
who  lived  quite  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  world. 
After  forty  years  of  British  rule  they  still  re- 
tained their  French  language  and  customs.  Al- 
though taking  no  part  in  the  wars  they  were  ac- 
cused by  the  British  of  fostering  hostility  to  the 
Government.  In  1755  by  a  merciless  decree  of 
the  King  of  England  the  Acadians  were  torn 
from  their  homes  and  forcibly  deported  to  dis- 
tant parts,  while  their  lands  were  confiscated  by 


48    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  Government.  Many  escaped,  but  more  than 
six  thousand  were  scattered  throughout  the  Eng- 
lish colonies.  Some  made  their  way  to  Louisi- 
ana, where  their  descendants  are  still  to  be 
found.  Longfellow  has  immortalized  the  mem- 
ory of  the  Acadians  in  "  Evangeline,"  a  poem 
based  upon  a  romantic  episode  of  the  expulsion. 

Differences  in  French  and  English  Character. — 
From  every  point  of  view  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish colonists  of  America  differed  widely  from 
each  other.  The  English  came  here  to  cultivate 
farms,  to  develop  the  country,  and  to  enjoy  civil 
and  religious  liberty.  They  were  independent 
and  self-reliant.  For  a  long  time  the  mother- 
country  exercised  but  slight  control  over  her 
colonists,  allowing  them  to  work  out  their  des- 
tiny in  their  own  way. 

France,  on  the  contrary,  never  permitted  her 
colonial  subjects  to  manage  their  own  affairs. 
Self-government  never  developed  among  the 
French  in  America,  nor  did  they  strike  their 
roots  deep  in  the  soil  as  did  the  English.  The 
French  colonists  were  for  the  most  part  fur- 
traders,  soldiers  looking  for  military  laurels, 
and  missionaries  trying  to  convert  the  In- 
dians, and  adopting  many  of  the  Indian  modes 
of  life  in  order  to  succeed. 


THE    FRENCH   AND    INDIAN   WAR         49 

France  had  many  forts,  but  few  settlements; 
England  many  settlements,  but  few  forts. 
France  stood  for  absolute  monarchy,  Roman 
Catholicism,  and  military  ideals;  England  for 
limited  monarchy,  Protestantism,  self-govern- 
ment, commerce,  and  agriculture.  Whether 
America  should  develop  along  French  or  Eng- 
lish lines  could  be  determined  only  on  the  field 
of  battle. 

The  French  and  English  also  differed  in  their 
treatment  of  the  Indians.  The  English  looked 
upon  the  red  men  as  natural  enemies  who  had 
no  rights  to  life  or  property.  The  generous  and 
humane  treatment  of  the  Indians  by  the  Penn- 
sylvania Quakers  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
cruel  policy  pursued  by  the  majority  of  English 
colonists. 

The  French,  who  were  just  and  merciful, 
pursued  the  opposite  course.  French  trappers 
and  hunters  adopted  Indian  dress  and  married 
Indian  wives.  French  priests  converted  the  red 
men  to  the  Catholic  religion.  When  the  strug- 
gle broke  out  between  the  English  and  the 
French  the  Indians,  naturally  took  the  side  of 
their  friends,  not  knowing  or  caring  about  the 
deeper  issues  at  stake.  Only  the  Iroquois  fed- 
eration of  New  York,  known  as  the  "  Six  Na- 


5o    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

tions,"  favored  the  English.  Their  sympathetic 
attitude  is  chiefly  to  be  accounted  for  on  the 
basis  of  their  traditionary  and  inveterate  hatred 
for  the  Algonquin  division  of  their  race,  which 
had  allied  itself  with  the  French. 

The  Growth  of  French  Dominion. — We  have 
already  seen  that  the  French  gained  their  first 
American  foothold  in  Canada.  Among  the  most 
serviceable  of  the  French  explorers  were  the 
Jesuit  missionaries,  self-sacrificing,  courageous 
priests  who  were  sent  out  by  the  Church  of 
Rome  to  Christianize  the  Indians.  The  names 
of  Joliet  and  Marquette,  who  risked  death  and 
torture  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  savages,  are 
honored  alike  in  the  history  of  America,  of 
France,  and  of  the  Christian  Church. 

In  1682  Robert  Cavalier,  Sieur  de  la  Salle, 
floated  down  the  Mississippi  River  and  claimed 
the  immense  valley  between  the  Alleghany  and 
the  Rocky  Mountains  in  the  name  of  the  King 
of  France.  Throughout  this  region  the  French 
established  forts  and  trading  stations.  Many  of 
the  great  cities  of  the  South  and  of  the  Middle 
West  started  in  this  way.  Detroit  was  founded 
in  1701,  Mobile  in  1706,  and  New  Orleans  in 
1718  as  military  and  trading  posts.  These  forts 
were  of  great  advantage,  because  in  case  of  war 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR    51 

with  England  they  would  enable  the  French  to 
control  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

For  many  years  there  were  no  contentions 
between  the  English  and  French  settlers.  The 
French  confined  their  efforts  to  the  West  and 
North-west,  while  the  English  remained  on  the 
seaboard. 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  French  should  de- 
sire to  bring  Canada  and  Louisiana,  the  north- 
ern and  southern  extremities  of  their  possessions, 
as  near  together  as  possible.  This  they  at- 
tempted to  do  by  making  a  chain  of  about  sixty 
forts  between  the  St.  Lawrence  River  and  New 
Orleans.  At  the  same  time  the  English,  feeling 
cramped  in  their  narrow  strip  of  territory  east 
of  the  Alleghanies,  turned  their  eyes  to  the  West 
and  realized  for  the  first  time  the  dangerous 
proximity  of  the  French. 

The  Final  Conflict. — In  1754  the  French,  reso- 
lute in  their  purpose  to  keep  the  English  from 
crossing  the  mountains,  built  Fort  Duquesne 
on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Pittsburgh. 
This  was  the  signal  for  war.  The  next  year  the 
British  Government  sent  over  a  small  army  un- 
der the  command  of  General  Braddock  to  drive 
the  French  out  of  the  West.  General  Braddock 
was  a  brave  officer,  but  unused  to  Indian  meth- 


52    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

ods  of  warfare.  He  had  had  plenty  of  experi- 
ence on  European  battle-fields,  where  armies 
fought  in  full  view  of  each  other  on  open  plains. 
But  the  Indians  hid  behind  rocks  and  trees. 
They  were  sure  marksmen,  and  while  they 
brought  down  their  foe  at  every  shot  they  them- 
selves could  not  be  seen. 

General  Braddock  marched  against  Fort  Du- 
quesne,  but  was  attacked  near  the  Monongahela 
River  by  the  French  and  their  Indian  allies. 
The  British  were  routed  and  General  Braddock 
was  slain.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  cool  hero- 
ism of  George  Washington,  then  twenty-three 
years  old  and  a  member  of  Braddock's  staff, 
hardly  a  man  in  the  British  Army  would  have 
been  left  alive. 

Comparison  of  Military  Strength. — At  the  out- 
break of  the  war  the  French  colonists  numbered 
about  sixty  thousand.  The  English  colonial 
population  was  nearly  a  million  and  a  half.  But 
if  the  French  were  inferior  in  point  of  numbers, 
they  possessed  certain  advantages  over  their  op- 
ponents. Canada,  the  French  stronghold,  was 
well  adapted  by  nature  for  defence.  It  could 
be  reached  only  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain  or 
the  St.  Lawrence  River,  both  of  which  were  con- 
trolled by  the  French.  Canada  was  governed 


THE    FRENCH   AND    INDIAN   WAR         53 

as  a  single  great  colony  directly  by  the  King  of 
France,  who  provided  men  and  money  to  carry 
on  the  war.  This  enabled  the  French  to  make 
rapid  military  movements  without  having  to 
wait  for  the  slow  discussions  and  tardy  support 
of  legislatures. 

The  English,  who  were  largely  self-govern- 
ing, to  a  great  extent  provided  for  their  own 
needs.  They  were  obliged  to  wait  until  their 
colonial  assemblies  would  vote  men  and  sup- 
plies, which  was  seldom  promptly  done,  the 
jealousies  of  colonial  governments  preventing 
swift  and  united  action. 

The  French  had  abler  generals  at  first  than 
the  English  and  vast  numbers  of  Indian  allies. 
For  three  years  the  French  were  victorious. 
But  when  in  1757  William  Pitt  was  placed  at 
the  head  of  affairs  in  England  the  fortune  of 
war  turned  in  favor  of  British  arms.  Incom- 
petent generals  were  replaced  by  good  ones, 
and  one  after  another  the  French  forts  fell 
into  English  hands.  Fort  Duquesne  was  taken 
in  1758,  and  renamed  Pittsburgh  in  honor 
of  William  Pitt.  The  expulsion  of  the 
French  from  Pennsylvania  threw  open  to  Eng- 
lish settlement  the  region  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies. 


54    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Fall  of  Louisburg  and  Quebec. — After 
Queen  Anne's  War,  when  the  French  lost 
so  much  territory  in  the  north,  they  determined 
to  guard  the  St.  Lawrence  Valley  against  the 
future  by  constructing  the  fortress  of  Louis- 
burg  on  Cape  Breton  Island.  It  was  twenty 
years  in  building,  its  walls  were  two  miles  and  a 
half  in  circumference,  and  it  was  regarded  as 
impregnable.  Nevertheless  Louisburg  was 
taken  by  New  England  troops  in  1745,  after  a 
six  weeks'  siege,  though  it  was  ceded  back  to 
France  in  1748.  Ten  years  later  it  again  suc- 
cumbed to  English  prowess  at  the  hands  of  Gen- 
eral Amherst  and  General  James  Wolfe — the 
latter  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  soldier  in  the 
military  history  of  England,  and  but  thirty-one 
years  of  age. 

On  the  morning  of  September  13,  1759,  eight 
thousand  French-Canadian  soldiers  in  the  for- 
tress of  Quebec  awoke  and  saw  confronting 
them,  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham  outside  the  city 
walls,  an  English  army  of  about  four  thousand. 
It  was  commanded  by  this  same  General  James 
Wolfe.  In  the  darkness  of  the  night  the  Eng- 
lish troops  had  climbed  a  precipice  three  hun- 
dred feet  high,  dragging  their  artillery  after 
them.  The  Marquis  de  Montcalm,  the  French 


THE    FRENCH   AND    INDIAN   WAR         55 

commander,  was  a  skilful  general  and  a  gallant 
man,  but  he  could  not  save  Quebec.  In  the  bat- 
tle which  followed  both  Wolfe  and  Montcalm 
were  killed.  As  General  Wolfe  was  dying  some 
one  told  him  that  the  victory  was  won.  He 
replied:  "Now  God  be  praised!  I  die  in 
peace.1' 

Montcalm  paid  his  conqueror  the  tribute 
of  a  brave  man.  "  Since  it  is  my  misfortune 
to  be  discomfited  and  mortally  wounded,"  said 
he,  "  it  is  a  great  consolation  to  me  to  have  been 
vanquished  by  so  brave  an  enemy.  If  I  could 
survive,  I  would  engage  to  beat  three  times  the 
number  of  such  forces  as  mine  were  with  one- 
third  the  number  of  British  troops."  When 
told  that  he  must  die,  he  answered:  "  It  is  well: 
I  shall  not  live  to  see  the  surrender  of  Quebec." 
The  inferiority  of  Montcalm's  army  was  due  to 
the  large  percentage  of  Indians  and  untrained 
Canadians. 

The  fall  of  Montreal  in  1760  practically 
ended  the  war  in  America,  although  the  Euro- 
pean struggle  continued  three  years  longer. 

Results  of  the  English  Conquest. — By  the  treaty 
of  peace  signed  at  Paris  in  1763  France  surren- 
dered to  England  all  of  Canada  and  the  country 
east  of  the  Mississippi  River.  All  the  French 


56    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

territory  west  of  the  Mississippi,  together 
with  New  Orleans,  was  ceded  to  Spain,  which 
had  been  an  ally  of  France  in  the  European  war. 
France  retained  some  of  the  West  Indies  and 
two  small  islands  in  the  St.  Lawrence.  The 
French  inhabitants  of  Canada  were  allowed  to 
retain  the  Catholic  religion. 

The  victory  over  France  was  the  triumph  of  a 
strong,  sturdy,  self-reliant  people.  It  deter- 
mined that  Anglo-Saxon  institutions  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  ideas  of  self-government  should  hence- 
forth prevail  in  America  instead  of  the  French 
idea  of  submission  to  the  will  of  an  absolute 
king. 

English  settlers  could  now  push  their  way 
across  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Mississippi,  build 
towns  and  engage  in  commerce  and  agriculture 
in  comparative  safety. 

Another  important  result  of  the  war  was  to 
loosen  the  tie  that  bound  the  colonies  to  the 
mother-country.  British  successes  throughout 
the  entire  series  of  four  international  struggles 
had  been  mainly  due  to  colonial  money  and  to 
the  efficiency  of  colonial  troops.  The  knowl- 
edge of  this  fact  gave  the  colonists  a  feeling  of 
increased  strength  and  independence.  They  had 
come  into  close  contact  with  each  other  and  they 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR  57 

began  to  feel  like  Americans  rather  than 
Englishmen.  The  French  and  Indian  War 
was  the  practical  training  school  of  many 
of  the  generals  who  a  few  years  later  were 
to  fight  to  victorious  issue  the  battles  of  the 
Revolution. 

The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac. — No  sooner  was 
peace  concluded  between  England  and  France 
than  the  former  Indian  allies  of  the  French  cre- 
ated trouble  for  their  new  masters. 

The  English  made  no  effort  to  gain  the  good- 
will of  the  red  men,  but  treated  them  with  un- 
disguised contempt.  The  proud-spirited  Indians 
resented  this,  and  secretly  encouraged  by  the 
French  plotted  to  overthrow  the  English  power. 
A  conspiracy  was  formed  among  many  tribes  to 
massacre  all  the  English  garrisons  and  settlers 
of  the  Great  Lakes  region  and  the  frontiers  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  The  head  of  the 
conspiracy  was  Pontiac,  probably  the  greatest  of 
all  the  Indian  chiefs  in  point  of  talent  and  native 
virtues.  The  plot  was  managed  with  great 
adroitness.  So  well-timed  was  it  that  every  Eng- 
lish garrison  was  attacked  on  the  same  day,  and 
all  but  three  were  taken.  The  war  continued 
with  interruptions  for  three  years,  but  in  the  end 
the  Indians  yielded.  The  failure  of  the  con- 


58    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

spiracy  of  Pontiac  broke  the  backbone  of  Indian 
resistance  forever.  There  have  been  many  Ind- 
ian wars  since  then,  but  none  ever  again  seri- 
ously threatened  the  supremacy  of  the  white 
race. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    COLONIES    IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CEN- 
TURY 

ONE  very  important  consequence  of  the 
French  and  Indian  War,  as  we  have 
already  noted,  was  to  diminish  the 
colonial  sense  of  dependence  upon  Great  Britain. 
The  colonists  for  the  first  time  realized  their 
own  strength  and  began  to  regard  themselves 
as  Americans,  not  merely  as  transplanted  Brit- 
ons. The  growth  of  this  sentiment  was  aided 
by  the  physical  distance  separating  England  and 
America,  and  by  the  fact  that  the  real  interests 
of  the  colonists  centred  on  this  side  of  the  ocean. 
But  the  term  American  did  not  have  the  large 
meaning  then  that  it  possesses  to-day.  To  be 
an  American  in  this  age  means  to  be  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  irrespective  of  State  or  sec- 
tion. In  the  eighteenth  century  an  American 
was  simply  a  Pennsylvanian,  a  Virginian,  a  New 
Englander,  or  some  other  provincial,  nothing 
more.  The  various  sections  differed  from  each 

59 


60    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

other  in  climate,  in  occupation,  in  social  customs 
and  ideals.  The  fact  that  there  were  no  rail- 
roads or  other  facilities  for  communication 
tended  to  perpetuate  some  of  these  differences. 
It  was  not  until  long  after  the  great  Civil  War 
that  the  United  States  became  a  truly  compact 
and  fraternal  nation. 

Although  the  colonies  were  dissimilar  in 
minor  respects,  in  serious  and  fundamental 
things  they  had  much  in  common.  They  were 
inspired  by  the  same  spirit  of  progress,  and  in 
particular  they  cherished  the  principle  of  repre- 
sentative government  in  contrast  to  the  aristo- 
cratic and  monarchical  ideas  of  the  Old  World. 
The  people  of  England  had  more  of  the  spirit 
and  institutions  of  democracy  than  the  people  of 
continental  Europe,  but  far  less  than  the  Ameri- 
cans. 

The  total  population  of  the  thirteen  colonies 
in  1760  was  something  over  a  million  and  a 
half,  about  equally  divided  by  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line.* 

*  The  charter  of  William  Penn  fixed  the  fortieth  degree 
north  latitude  as  the  southern  boundary  of  Pennsylvania, 
thus  excluding  Philadelphia  and  shutting  the  colony  en- 
tirely off  from  the  Delaware  Bay.  As  this  was  evidently 
not  the  intent  of  the  charter  Penn  claimed  a  portion  of 
Maryland  as  his  rightful  property.  After  a  long  dispute 


THE   COLONIES  61 

The  Soutnern  Colonies. — Agriculture  was  the 
chief  employment  of  the  people  of  the  South; 
consequently  country  life  greatly  predominated 
over  town  life,  and  social  interests  centred  in 
the  plantations.  Baltimore  and  Charleston  were 
the  only  Southern  cities  of  size  and  importance. 
Maryland  and  Virginia  raised  large  quantities 
of  tobacco,  which  they  exported  to  London, 
while  South  Carolina  was  devoted  to  the  culti- 
vation of  rice  and  indigo. 

The  population  of  the  Southern  colonies  com- 
prised three  elements :  the  planters,  the  negroes, 
and  the  "  poor  whites."  The  planters  domi- 
nated both  the  social  and  the  political  life  of 
their  section.  Many  of  them  were  descended 
from  the  Cavaliers,  who  fled  to  America  in  the 
previous  century  when  the  Stuart  line  of  kings 
was  expelled  and  the  Puritans  ruled  England. 
The  planters  were  a  rich,  intelligent,  and  honor- 
able class  who  gave  to  our  country  some  of  its 
best  and  wisest  men.  They  lived  in  large, 
square  frame  or  brick  mansions,  surrounded  by 

the  heirs  of  Penn  and  those  of  Lord  Baltimore  agreed  to 
make  a  new  boundary.  The  line  was  drawn  by  Charles 
Mason  and  Jeremiah  Dixon,  two  English  surveyors,  and 
has  ever  since  been  known  as  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  It 
is  the  conventional  line  of  division  between  the  North  and 
the  South. 


62    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

well-kept  acres,  and  dispensed  a  generous  hos- 
pitality both  to  their  neighbors  and  to  the  stran- 
ger who  passed  their  way. 

The  negroes  dwelt  at  some  distance  from  the 
mansion  in  small  cabins,  which  were  known  as 
the  "  servants'  quarters."  As  a  rule  they  were 
well  cared  for  and  their  condition  was  a  happy 
one,  except  in  the  rice-swamps  of  the  far  South, 
where  their  labor  was  especially  arduous  and 
their  treatment  severe.  The  ownership  of 
slaves,  together  with  his  superior  importance  in 
the  community,  made  the  planter  haughty  and 
imperious  to  those  who  were  his  inferiors  in 
rank  and  condition.  But  it  also  gave  him  a 
feeling  of  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  those 
who  were  dependent  upon  him,  and  developed 
some  worthy  moral  qualities  in  his  nature. 

A  species  of  white  slavery  also  existed  in  some 
of  the  colonies.  A  favorite  policy  of  the  Brit- 
ish Government  was  to  transport  large  numbers 
of  convicts  to  America,  where  they  were  bound 
out  to  service  for  long  periods  of  time.  Most 
of  them  were  sent  to  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
whose  people  protested  strongly  against  receiv- 
ing them. 

Many  of  the  voluntary  immigrants  were  too 
poor  to  pay  for  their  passage.  Such  persons 


THE  COLONIES  63 

were  met  on  their  arrival  by  individual  colonists 
who  paid  the  master  of  the  ship  his  transporta- 
tion charges.  In  return  the  immigrants  bound 
themselves  to  work  for  their  benefactors  with- 
out pay,  generally  for  a  period  of  two  years,  at 
the  expiration  of  which  they  were  given  their 
freedom.  They  were  known  as  "  redemption- 
ers."  This  sort  of  white  servitude  existed  prin- 
cipally in  the  South,  but  to  some  extent  in  Penn- 
sylvania. The  redemptioners  in  course  of  time 
found  their  way  into  the  substantial  and  pros- 
perous middle  class.  Many  married  into  fam- 
ilies with  which  they  lived.  One  signed  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence. 

The  Church  of  England  was  established  by 
law  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas. 
In  Maryland  the  Roman  Catholics  had  been 
driven  out  by  the  Protestants,  and  all  tax-payers 
were  compelled  to  contribute  to  the  support  of 
the  Episcopal  clergy,  who  were  more  noted  for 
their  horse-racing  and  gambling  than  for  their 
piety.  After  the  Revolution  other  denomina- 
tions multiplied  rapidly  throughout  the  South. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  the  College 
of  William  and  Mary  was  the  only  institution 
of  higher  learning  from  Maryland  to  Georgia, 
and  that  was  patronized  only  by  the  rich.  Law- 


64    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

yers  were  an  influential  element  of  Southern 
society.  They  were  usually  the  younger  sons  of 
wealthy  planters. 

New  England.  —  New  England  offered  a 
marked  contrast  in  some  respects  to  the  Southern 
colonies.  Instead  of  living  far  apart  on  great 
plantations  the  New  England  people  dwelt  in 
towns,  which  were  many  and  prosperous.  The 
poor  quality  of  the  soil  made  agriculture  less 
productive  than  in  the  more  fertile  regions  of  the 
West  and  South.  Many  persons  were  therefore 
compelled  to  engage  in  trade,  fishing,  and  me- 
chanical pursuits  for  support.  Thus  the  nature 
of  their  employment  made  it  necessary  for  the 
people  to  live  in  communities.  Then,  too,  the 
constant  peril  of  Indian  attacks  in  earlier  times, 
together  with  the  fact  that  religious  associa- 
tion was  a  prime  duty  with  the  Puritans,  gave 
town  life  an  inevitable  ascendancy  over  country 
life. 

Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island  manufact- 
ured considerable  quantities  of  coarse  cloth  for 
home  use.  The  many  swift  streams  furnished 
abundant  water-power  for  mills  and  factories. 
There  was  a  great  deal  of  ship-building  and  a 
large  miscellaneous  commerce  with  the  West 
Indies  and  Southern  Europe.  The  foundation 


THE  COLONIES  65 

of  the  present  varied  industrial  life  of  New 
England  was  laid  back  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries. 

Slavery  existed  to  a  limited  extent.  There 
was  no  opposition  to  it  on  moral  grounds,  such 
as  arose  a  century  later.  New  England  ship- 
owners who  were  deacons  in  the  church  thought 
it  no  sin  to  engage  in  the  African  slave-trade. 
The  failure  of  slavery  to  take  root  in  New  Eng- 
land was  due  partly  to  the  rigor  of  the  climate, 
but  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  slave-labor  was  not 
adapted  to  the  pursuits  of  that  section. 

Class  distinctions  were  not  so  sharply  drawn 
as  in  the  South,  and  extremes  of  wealth  and  pov- 
erty were  not  so  marked.  But  it  would  be  a  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  there  was  no  aristocracy. 
There  is  an  aristocracy  in  every  community,  a 
class  of  citizens  whose  superiority  is  commonly 
conceded.  In  New  England  this  aristocratic  ele- 
ment consisted  of  the  clergy,  the  merchants,  the 
magistrates,  and  the  school-teachers.  Unlike 
the  Southern  planters,  however,  they  did  not  have 
a  monopoly  in  government.  Political  power  in 
New  England  was  shared  by  the  people. 

The  Congregational  Church  was  established 
by  law  in  every  colony,  except  Rhode  Island,  in 
about  the  same  degree  that  the  Church  of  Eng- 


66    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

land  was  established  in  the  South.  It  continued 
to  be  supported  by  public  taxes  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut  as  late  as  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Education  went  hand  in  hand 
with  religion.  Harvard,  Yale,  and  Brown  were 
flourishing  institutions  when  the  Revolution 
broke  out. 

The  Middle  Colonies. — The  population  of  New 
England  and  the  South  was  mainly  of  English 
stock,  but  that  of  the  Middle  colonies  included 
many  nationalities.  Democratic  sentiment  was 
wide-spread  and  deeply  rooted,  especially  in 
Pennsylvania,  which  had  a  more  nearly  equal 
distribution  of  wealth  than  any  other  colony 
North  or  South.  The  Quakers  came  the  near- 
est to  constituting  an  aristocratic  class  in  Penn- 
sylvania. New  York  had  a  very  real  aristocracy 
in  the  Dutch  Knickerbocker  families  who  were 
descended  from  the  early  patroons.  Slavery 
existed  to  a  greater  extent  in  the  Middle  colonies 
than  in  New  England,  but  it  was  not  a  vital 
part  of  the  industrial  system  except  in  Dela- 
ware. 

The  people  derived  their  support  mainly 
from  agriculture.  The  farms  of  eastern  Penn- 
sylvania were  the  richest  to  be  found  in  the  entire 
country.  In  this  colony  manufacturing  had  also 


THE  COLONIES  67 

begun,  giving  promise  of  that  vast  development 
which  it  was  to  attain  in  the  future.  The  iron 
mines  of  Pennsylvania  were  opened  in  1720. 
By  the  middle  of  the  century  large  quantities  of 
this  ore  were  exported  to  England.  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  were  the  centres  of  a  large  ex- 
port trade  in  grain,  flour,  and  furs  with  Europe 
and  the  West  Indies. 

The  Church  of  England  was  established  in  all 
the  Middle  colonies  save  Pennsylvania,  where 
religious  freedom  was  permitted  every  one,  even 
Roman  Catholics  who  were  proscribed  and  penal- 
ized elsewhere.  Popular  education  was  generally 
neglected  in  the  Middle  colonies  owing  to  the 
unwillingness  of  the  Church  of  England  author- 
ities to  intrust  it  to  those  who  were  not  of  their 
faith.  The  Quakers,  Germans,  and  Moravians 
had  a  few  excellent  private  schools  in  the  larger 
towns  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  and 
there  were  several  institutions  of  higher  grade 
that  have  since  become  widely  celebrated.  The 
University  of  Pennsylvania  was  founded  in 
1740,  and  soon  took  equal  rank  with  the  older 
colleges  of  New  England.  Unlike  them  its  pur- 
pose was  not  to  train  the  clergy,  but  to  provide  a 
liberal  education  for  all  the  youth  of  the  prov- 
ince who  might  choose  to  attend.  It  was  the 


68    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

first  collegiate  institution  in  America  which  was 
not  sectarian  in  its  origin,  and  the  first  to  offer 
courses  of  study  in  law,  medicine,  and  science. 
King's  College,  now  Columbia  University,  and 
the  College  of  New  Jersey,  at  Princeton,  were 
founded  a  few  years  later. 

The  Crudity  of  Colonial  Life. — The  most  no- 
ticeable feature  of  American  life  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  as  compared  with  our  own  times 
is  the  entire  absence  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago  of  many  things  which  we  of  to-day  regard 
as  indispensable  to  safety,  convenience,  and  pros- 
perity. The  great  inventions,  the  amazing  in- 
crease of  scientific  knowledge,  the  general  util- 
ization of  natural  forces  to  do  the  physical  work 
of  the  world,  these  are  in  the  main  the  contribu- 
tions of  the  nineteenth  century  to  the  comfort 
and  advancement  of  mankind. 

The  American  of  the  eighteenth  century  trav- 
elled as  the  world  had  travelled  for  thousands 
of  years,  the  only  difference  being  a  greater  in- 
convenience incidental  to  the  crude  and  unsettled 
condition  of  America.  Land  travel  was  either 
by  horseback  or  by  stage-coach.  Frequently  a 
wife  rode  behind  her  husband  on  the  same  steed. 
Stage-coaches  were  uncomfortable  affairs,  hav- 
ing no  springs  and  frequently  no  backs  to  the 


THE  COLONIES  69 

seats.  Roads  were  usually  bad;  some  towns  had 
none,  but  used  the  old  Indian  trails.  The  best 
roads  were  to  be  found  in  Pennsylvania.  There 
were  few  bridges;  rivers  had  to  be  forded  or 
crossed  on  improvised  and  dangerous  rafts.  To 
go  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia  by  stage- 
coach required  two  or  three  days,  and  from  New 
York  to  Boston  six.  Travel  by  slow  sailing- 
vessel  on  river,  lake,  and  coast  was  safe  and 
agreeable  compared  to  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
stage-coach.  The  majority  of  people  obviated 
the  inconvenience  and  expense  of  travel  by  re- 
maining at  home  all  their  lives. 

Mails  were  few  and  irregular.  In  1775 
there  were  only  thirty-seven  weekly  newspapers 
in  the  whole  country  and  no  dailies.  These 
journals  were  poorly  printed  and  contained  very 
meagre  and  aged  news  accounts,  being  chiefly 
filled  with  miscellaneous  matter,  such  as  poetry, 
sermons,  political  essays,  and  local  advertise- 
ments. 

Physicians  were  persons  of  dignity  and  im- 
portance, but  of  very  limited  professional  knowl- 
edge. They  administered  remedies  made  of  bit- 
ter herbs  and  curious  compounds  which  would 
astonish  the  practitioner  of  to-day.  No  matter 
what  the  disease  might  be,  their  usual  practice 


70    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

was  to  bleed  the  patient.  Sometimes  a  quart  or 
more  of  blood  was  drawn  from  a  sick  person 
on  the  supposition  that  such  treatment  was  bene- 
ficial. Washington  died  from  loss  of  blood 
drawn  by  his  physician  to  cure  laryngitis. 
Philadelphia  was  far  in  advance  of  all  other 
colonial  towns  and  cities  in  medical  learning — 
a  distinction  which  to  a  less  degree  it  may  still 
be  said  to  retain.  The  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania was  the  pioneer  in  the  systematic  study  of 
medicine.  Lectures  in  this  subject  were  given  as 
early  as  1762,  and  in  1765  a  special  department 
was  organized.  Young  doctors  in  other  parts 
of  the  country  equipped  themselves  for  general 
practice  by  serving  a  brief  apprenticeship  in  the 
offices  of  older  physicians,  and  then  went  out 
with  drugs  and  scalpel  to  prey  upon  the  com- 
munity. 

Government. — The  most  striking  fact  in  the 
political  history  of  the  colonies  up  to  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  is  their  unusual  degree 
of  freedom  from  British  control.  The  self-gov- 
ernment of  the  thirteen  British  dependencies 
offers  a  sharp  contrast  to  the  minute  and  strict 
supervision  which  France  exercised  over  Canada 
and  to  the  general  colonial  policy  of  the  nations 
of  that  day. 


THE  COLONIES  71 

One  reason  for  this  extraordinary  liberality 
was  the  necessity  which  the  British  Govern- 
ment early  realized  of  insuring  the  good-will 
of  the  colonists  as  a  guarantee  of  protection 
against  the  French.  Another  reason  perhaps 
was  the  feeling  of  relief  experienced  by  the 
home  authorities  at  getting  rid  of  the  Puritans, 
the  Quakers,  and  the  Roman  Catholics  so  easily 
and  so  cheaply.  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island 
in  particular  had  a  larger  measure  of  inde- 
pendence than  is  enjoyed  by  any  colony  in  the 
British  Empire  at  the  present  day.  They  elected 
their  own  governors  and  had  all  the  powers  of 
sovereignty  except  the  right  to  make  treaties 
with  foreign  nations.  So  liberal  were  their 
charters  that  these  instruments  continued  in  use 
as  State  constitutions  until  1818  and  1842  re- 
spectively. 

In  the  case  of  the  other  eleven  colonies  the 
governors  were  appointed  by  the  king  or,  as  in 
Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  by  the  proprietors. 
These  governors  had  extensive  military  and  civil 
powers,  but  no  control  over  the  public  treasury, 
that  being  completely  in  the  hands  of  the  as- 
semblies, which  were  everywhere  elected  by 
the  people.  The  governors  and  the  colon- 
ial legislatures  engaged  in  frequent  quarrels, 


72    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

but  as  the  assemblies  held  the  public  purse 
the  people  through  their  representatives  usually 
won. 

Although  the  governors  had  the  power  of 
veto  they  seldom  dared  use  it,  for  if  they  did 
the  assemblies  were  almost  certain  to  retaliate 
by  withholding  their  salaries.  The  same  meas- 
ure of  coercion  was  also  applied  to  the  judges, 
who  like  the  governors  were  appointed  by  the 
king  or  the  proprietor.  A  New  York  judge 
who  gave  a  decision  against  a  member  of  the 
legislature  was  promptly  punished  by  having 
his  salary  reduced.  The  fact  that  all  colonial 
officials,  whether  elected  or  appointed,  depended 
for  their  salaries  upon  the  legislatures  consti- 
tuted a  most  effective  weapon  in  the  hands  of 
the  people,  who  were  thus  practically  indepen- 
dent of  external  control. 

The  franchise  was  restricted  in  every  colony 
by  property  qualifications  and  religious  tests, 
i  even  in  Pennsylvania  and  Rhode  Island,  which 
were  noted  above  the  rest  for  their  liberality. 

Town  and  County. — In  New  England,  where 
the  people  were  grouped  in  communities,  the 
town  naturally  became  the  political  unit.  All 
local  questions  were  decided  in  "  town-meeting," 
which  met  several  times  each  year  and  where 


THE   COLONIES  73 

discussion  was  open  to  any  voter.  The  town- 
meeting  proved  an  excellent  political  training 
school.  Here  the  people  learned  the  art  of  de- 
bate and  acquired  an  experience  in  public  affairs 
which  has  contributed  largely  to  the  success 
of  the  democratic  principle  of  government  in 
America. 

In  the  South,  where  towns  were  few,  the 
county  was  the  unit.  As  a  general  rule  county 
officers  were  not  elected,  but  were  appointed  by 
the  governors  from  the  class  of  planters  and 
lawyers.  From  this  practice  it  resulted  that  only 
a  few  became  proficient  in  the  science  of  gov- 
ernment. 

The  Middle  colonies  contained  numerous 
trading  towns  and  large  agricultural  regions. 
Hence  we  find  a  mixed  type  bearing  resem- 
blances to  both  the  town  and  county  systems.  In 
Pennsylvania  county  officers  were  elected  by  the 
people,  while  in  New  York  the  affairs  of  the 
county  were  managed  by  a  board  of  supervisors 
who  were  chosen  by  the  towns. 

These  local  systems  have  been  extended  west- 
ward by  migration  along  parallels  of  latitude. 
Kentucky  was  settled  by  Virginians,  who  estab- 
lished in  their  new  homes  the  county  system.  In 
northern  Ohio,  which  was  peopled  chiefly  by 


74    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

New  Englanders,  the  town  became  the  political 
unit;  while  southern  Ohio,  settled  by  Pennsyl- 
vanians,  adopted  that  variety  of  the  mixed  type 
which  prevailed  in  the  locality  whence  the  immi- 
grants came. 


CHAPTER    VIII 
CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

THE  French  and  Indian  War  by  remov- 
ing the  only  rival  that  threatened 
British  dominion  in  America  enabled 
England  to  turn  her  undivided  attention  to 
the  internal  affairs  of  her  colonies,  which  had 
so  long  enjoyed  immunity  from  interference. 
From  1763  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution 
the  British  Government  tried  by  a  continuous 
abridgment  of  their  political  and  commercial 
privileges  to  gain  a  firmer  hold  of  its  American 
possessions. 

At  that  time  all  nations  held  the  theory  that 
colonies  existed  for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  parent 
state.  That  they  had  rights  which  the  mother- 
country  was  bound  to  respect  was  not  recognized 
by  the  governments  of  Europe.  While  England 
held  this  view  in  common  with  other  nations, 
unlike  them  she  had  never  acted  upon  it,  but  had, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  allowed  her  colonies 
to  develop  about  as  they  pleased.  The  unfortu- 

75 


76    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

nate  change  in  her  colonial  policy  was  chiefly  the 
work  of  the  king,  George  III,  who  was  deter- 
mined to  exercise  a  larger  measure  of  royal  au- 
thority than  the  Constitution  of  England  sanc- 
tioned or  than  his  talents  fitted  him  for.  He 
was  seconded  by  incapable  advisers  and  by  Par- 
liament, which  was  singularly  blind  to  true 
British  interests. 

The  Navigation  Acts. — The  first  step  in  the 
Government's  new  policy  was  to  enlarge  and 
strictly  enforce  the  Navigation  Acts,  a  series  of 
laws  which  had  been  passed  from  time  to  time 
during  the  previous  hundred  years  to  give  Eng- 
land a  monopoly  of  colonial  trade  by  limiting 
manufactures  and  forbidding  commerce  with 
other  countries. 

The  way  in  which  the  mother-country  ex- 
pected to  derive  benefit  from  this  measure  was 
by  having  all  colonial  products  which  were 
intended  for  European  countries  shipped  to 
England  first,  to  be  resold  to  foreign  dealers 
by  English  merchants,  who  would  thus  make  a 
profit. 

As  the  Navigation  Acts  had  been  practi- 
cally ignored  by  the  British  authorities  them- 
selves for  more  than  a  century,  the  attempt  to 
revive  them  and  to  impose  new  commercial  re- 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  77 

strictions  upon  the  colonies  at  the  very  moment 
of  their  most  prosperous  development  was  in- 
dignantly resented  in  America.  To  evade  the 
laws  the  colonists  resorted  to  smuggling. 

The  Sending  of  British  Troops. — It  was  also 
determined  by  the  Government  to  establish  a 
permanent  standing  army  of  ten  thousand  Brit- 
ish troops  in  America.  The  reason  alleged  was 
that  they  were  necessary  for  protection  against 
the  Indians.  The  colonists,  however,  believed 
that  the  real  object  was  to  destroy  colonial  lib- 
erties. 

Taxation  Without  Representation. — The  third 
feature  of  the  Government's  programme  was  its 
purpose  to  make  the  colonies  partially  defray 
the  expense  of  maintaining  these  garrisons  by  a 
tax  amounting  to  one-third  of  their  support.  It 
was  not  the  amount  of  the  tax,  but  the  principle 
that  the  colonists  resented.  They  thought  it  un- 
just that  the  British  Parliament  in  which  they 
were  given  no  representation  should  force  them 
to  contribute  to  the  maintenance  of  a  foreign 
army  sent  to  their  country  with  hostile  intent  in 
execution  of  a  law  which  they  themselves  had  no 
part  in  framing. 

The  Stamp  Act  and  the  Quartering  Act— In 
1764  Parliament  enacted  that  all  bills,  notes, 


78    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

marriage  certificates,  and  other  legal  instru- 
ments must  be  written  on  paper  bearing  the  Gov- 
ernment stamp.  The  revenue  derived  from  the 
sale  of  stamps  was  to  be  employed  in  colonial 
defence.  The  purpose  of  the  law  was  not  un- 
usual or  tyrannical,  but  the  colonists  objected  be- 
cause it  was  inconsistent  with  their  own  practices 
and  conception  of  liberty. 

The  Quartering  Act  required  the  colonists  to 
furnish  the  British  troops  stationed  among  them 
with  quarters  and  provisions.  This  law  was 
directly  opposed  to  a  well-known  principle  of 
the  British  Constitution  which  the  colonists 
claimed  existed  for  their  benefit  as  well  as  for 
that  of  native-born  Englishmen. 

The  Colonies  Remonstrate.— These  acts  of 
Parliament  called  out  strong  expressions  of  dis- 
sent from  some  of  the  colonial  legislatures.  The 
Virginia  Assembly  passed  resolutions  asserting 
that  it  alone  had  the  right  to  tax  the  people  of 
Virginia,  which  right  could  only  be  lawfully  ex- 
ercised by  the  people  themselves  or  by  their 
chosen  representatives. 

Massachusetts  invited  her  sister  colonies  to 
send  delegates  to  New  York  to  address  a  remon- 
strance to  the  king  and  Parliament.  Nine  ac- 
cepted, and  the  convention  met  in  October, 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  79 

1765.  Jn  a  "Declaration  of  the  Rights  and 
Grievances  of  the  Colonists  in  America  "  it  de- 
nied the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  the  colonies 
without  representation.  There  was  no  threat 
of  resistance,  but  the  action  of  the  delegates 
showed  that  they  were  supported  by  public  sen- 
timent. 

Benjamin  Franklin  was  sent  to  England  to 
argue  the  American  cause  before  a  committee 
of  Parliament.  William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham, 
made  a  powerful  speech  against  the  Stamp  Act. 
The  objectionable  measure  was  repealed,  but 
the  victory  was  fruitless,  for  Parliament  still 
insisted  upon  the  right  to  tax  the  colonies  with- 
out their  consent. 

The  Townshend  Act.— In  1767  Parliament 
passed  a  new  revenue  law  which  imposed  a  tax 
upon  many  articles  of  common  use,  including 
tea.  The  proceeds  of  the  tax  were  to  pay  the 
salaries  of  the  royal  governors  and  the  judges 
with  the  object  of  releasing  these  officials  from 
the  control  of  colonial  legislatures  which  had 
long  been  accustomed  to  carry  their  points  by 
the  simple  expedient  of  withholding  salaries 
from  those  who  opposed  their  will. 

The  Townshend  Act  was  received  with  a 
storm  of  protest.  John  Dickinson  wrote  a  series 


80    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  articles  under  the  caption  "  Letters  of  a  Penn- 
sylvania Farmer/'  which  were  published  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Chronicle  and  circulated  through- 
out the  colonies,  and  even  translated  into  French 
and  published  in  Paris.  They  attacked  the  posi- 
tion of  Parliament,  and  had  a  powerful  influence 
in  preparing  the  popular  mind  for  armed  resist- 
ance. Led  by  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  the 
colonies  joined  in  an  agreement  not  to  purchase 
any  of  the  articles  which  were  subject  to  the 
Townshend  duties.  This  policy  proved  effectual, 
and  in  1770  all  the  duties  were  repealed  except 
the  tax  on  tea.  It  was  an  insubstantial  triumph, 
for  Parliament  refused  to  concede  the  principle 
for  which  the  colonies  contended,  but  insisted 
as  before  upon  its  unlimited  right  to  tax  them 
with  or  without  their  consent. 

Opposition  Becomes  Violent. — The  British  min- 
istry continued  to  issue  orders  sure  to  irritate  a 
people  accustomed  to  self-government.  Numer- 
ous quarrels  in  the  nature  of  riots  occurred  be- 
tween the  British  troops  and  the  people.  On 
March  5,  1770,  a  crowd  of  citizens  in  Boston 
got  into  an  affray  with  a  British  guard.  The 
soldiers  fired,  killing  four  and  wounding  several 
of  the  mob.  This  affair  became  celebrated  as 
the  "  Boston  Massacre."  The  royal  governor 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  81 

of  North  Carolina  at  the  head  of  fifteen  hun- 
dred troops  fired  upon  an  assemblage  of  people 
who  were  meeting  for  an  orderly  purpose. 
These  incidents  created  a  sensation  throughout 
the  country  because  they  showed  the  peril  to 
popular  liberties  which  was  certain  to  result 
whenever  civil  authority  was  replaced  by  mili- 
tary power. 

Late  in  1773  ship-loads  of  tea  were  sent  to 
various  American  ports  from  New  Hampshire 
to  South  Carolina.  Philadelphia  ordered  the 
Delaware  River  pilots  not  to  bring  any  tea-ships 
up  the  river.  A  vessel  that  reached  Chester 
was  sent  back  to  England.  New  York,  Charles- 
ton, and  other  cities  took  similar  action.  The 
tea  designed  for  Massachusetts  met  with  a  more 
spectacular  fate.  Some  of  the  citizens  of  Bos- 
ton, disguised  as  Indians,  boarded  British  ships 
one  night  and  threw  the  tea  with  which  they 
were  laden  into  the  harbor.  Such  persistent 
opposition  enraged  the  Government  and  made 
it  more  than  ever  determined  to  establish  Brit- 
ish sovereignty  in  America. 

The  "Intolerable  Acts."— Massachusetts  was 
particularly  violent  in  resistance  to  British 
measures  of  repression.  It  had  borne  the  brunt 
of  the  French  and  Indian  War,  and  on  that  ac- 


82    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

count  deemed  itself  entitled  to  consideration 
from  the  home  Government;  morever,  it  had 
lost  many  of  the  powers  of  sovereignty  which 
had  once  placed  it  in  the  class  with  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island,  and  resentment  still  rankled 
in  the  hearts  of  Massachusetts  patriots. 

Early  in  1774  Parliament  passed  a  series  of 
drastic  laws  directed  mainly  against  Massachu- 
setts. The  first  closed  the  port  of  Boston  to 
commerce  until  the  town  should  pay  the  amount 
of  damage  caused  by  the  riots. 

A  second  greatly  extended  the  power  of  the 
crown  over  the  colony  by  declaring  void  certain 
popular  provisions  of  the  charter. 

A  third  provided  that  officers  and  soldiers 
who  in  resisting  riots  might  render  themselves 
liable  to  the  charge  of  homicide  should  be  sent 
to  England  for  trial  instead  of  being  tried  in 
the  colonial  courts.  The  Americans  believed 
that  this  would  encourage  soldiers  to  shoot 
citizens. 

A  fourth  act  provided  for  the  quartering  of 
British  troops  on  the  people,  and  was  intended 
to  establish  military  despotism  in  Massachu- 
setts. 

Finally  certain  political  and  religious  privi- 
leges were  given  to  the  French  Catholics  of 


CAUSES   OF  THE  REVOLUTION  83 

Canada,  and  territory  claimed  by  Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut,  and  Virginia  was  annexed  to 
the  province  of  Quebec.  The  purpose  of  the 
Government  was  to  satisfy  the  French  Cana- 
dians, so  that  they  would  feel  no  inclination  to 
unite  with  the  disaffected  colonies.  The  latter 
believed  that  this  law  imperilled  both  Protestant- 
ism and  Anglo-Saxon  ideals  and  institutions. 

General  Gage  was  appointed  by  the  king 
Governor  of  Massachusetts.  When  he  attempt- 
ed to  enforce  the  "  Intolerable  Acts  "  the  other 
colonies  rallied  to  the  defence  of  Massachusetts, 
feeling  that  her  cause  was  now  their  own,  as 
similar  legislation  might  at  any  time  be  enacted 
against  them. 

The  First  Continental  Congress. — On  Septem- 
ber 5,  1774,  a  convention  met  in  Philadelphia 
which  was  attended  by  delegates  from  every  col- 
ony except  Georgia.  Some  of  the  most  distin- 
guished men  in  America  were  present;  among 
them  George  Washington,  Edmund  Randolph, 
and  Patrick  Henry  from  Virginia;  John  and 
Samuel  Adams  from  Massachusetts;  John  Jay 
from  New  York,  and  John  Dickinson  from 
Pennsylvania. 

A  declaration  of  rights  was  issued  denying 
the  authority  of  Parliament  over  the  colonies, 


84    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  asserting  that  the  colonial  assemblies  should 
legislate  for  America.  Addresses  were  pre- 
pared to  the  king  disclaiming  any  desire  for 
separation  from  the  crown,  and  to  the  people 
of  England.  The  people  of  Canada  were  in- 
vited to  join  in  a  protest  to  Great  Britain.  It 
was  further  agreed  to  neither  import  nor  export 
goods  from  or  to  the  mother-country  or  her 
possessions  in  the  West  Indies.  Finally  the  col- 
onies pledged  themselves  to  support  Massachu- 
setts in  case  her  opposition  to  the  acts  of  Par- 
liament involved  her  in  war  with  Great  Britain. 
The  First  Blood  of  the  Revolution.— The 
high-handed  proceedings  of  General  Gage  soon 
impelled  the  people  of  Massachusetts  to  prepare 
for  armed  resistance.  A  quantity  of  military 
stores  was  secretly  deposited  at  Concord,  a  small 
village  about  twenty  miles  from  Boston.  Gen- 
eral Gage,  being  apprised  of  it,  sent  a  detach- 
ment of  troops  to  seize  the  stores.  As  they 
passed  through  Lexington  in  the  early  morning 
of  April  19,  1775,  they  encountered  one  hun- 
dred Massachusetts  militiamen,  who  during  the 
night  had  been  informed  of  the  British  move- 
ment. When  ordered  to  disperse,  the  "  embat- 
tled farmers  "  refused,  whereupon  the  British 
opened  fire,  killing  seven  and  wounding  others. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  85 

The  troops  then  proceeded  to  Concord  and  de- 
stroyed the  few  remaining  stores  which  the  citi- 
zens had  not  been  able  to  remove. 

Meanwhile  the  militia  swarmed  in  from  the 
adjacent  country,  and  when  the  British  were 
ready  to  return  to  Boston  they  found  an  enemy 
behind  every  rock,  tree,  and  fence  along  the 
road.  Exposed  to  a  hidden  and  continuous  fire 
the  British  presented  an  easy  target  for  the 
skilled  provincial  marksmen.  Their  retreat  be- 
came a  rout,  and  when  they  reached  Boston  that 
night  they  had  lost  nearly  three  hundred  of  their 
number. 

Thus  began  the  memorable  war  which  was  to 
divide  the  British  Empire  and  create  a  new  na- 
tion. 

The  Meaning  of  the  Coming  Struggle.— Neither 
the  arbitrary  British  policy  of  taxation  without 
representation,  the  quartering  of  foreign  troops 
on  the  inhabitants  in  time  of  peace,  the  objec- 
tionable system  of  commercial  restriction,  nor 
any  other  factor  taken  singly  or  together  will 
fully  explain  the  revolt  of  the  united  American 
colonies.  Back  of  it  all  lay  the  unconquerable 
spirit  of  freedom,  inherent  and  overwhelming 
in  the  American  people,  which  not  only  resented 
the  abuse  of  power,  but  which  was  intolerant 


86    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  control  or  interference  in  any  form,  however 
legitimate,  when  exercised  by  an  authority  ex- 
ternal to  themselves.  They  had  grown  into  a 
distinct  people,  broader  minded,  more  energetic, 
more  intelligent  than  their  kindred  across  the 
sea,  and  submission  to  foreign  rule  was  no 
longer  compatible  with  ambition  and  self-re- 
spect. 

Nowhere  was  there  a  large  majority  in  favor 
of  war.  In  New  York,  South  Carolina,  and 
Georgia  the  war-party  was  in  a  minority;  but 
it  was  everywhere  better  organized  and  made 
effective  use  of  its  strength,  very  often  by  treat- 
ing its  opponents  to  coats  of  tar  and  feathers 
and  employing  other  forms  of  violent  persua- 
sion. 

After  hostilities  commenced  many  Loyalists, 
or  "  Tories/'  as  the  Americans  who  sympa- 
thized with  the  British  Government  were  called, 
took  up  their  residence  in  Quebec,  Nova  Scotia, 
and  other  colonies  of  the  crown.  About  fifty 
thousand  enlisted  at  different  periods  of  the  war 
in  the  British  Army.  The  Loyalists  were  nearly 
all  persons  of  wealth  and  social  standing,  and 
the  disappearance  of  so  conservative  and  profit- 
able an  element  was  felt  to  the  detriment  of 
America  for  many  years. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  87 

The  English  people  were  by  no  means  unani- 
mous in  approval  of  their  Government's  attitude 
toward  America.  The  City  of  London,  which 
had  previously  never  failed  to  give  enthusiastic 
support  to  foreign  wars,  opposed  from  first  to 
last  the  attempt  to  coerce  America.  Some  of 
the  best  officers  in  the  army  refused  to  serve 
against  the  colonists.  The  Whig  Party  cham- 
pioned the  colonial  cause,  believing  it  to  be  in 
reality  the  cause  of  all  British  subjects,  but  the 
king's  ministers  and  Parliament  were  controlled 
by  the  Tory  Party,  which  was  determined  to 
crush  the  liberties  of  America. 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR 

WHEN  the  skirmish  at  Lexington  an- 
nounced the  advent  of  war  the  colo- 
nists were  not  contending  avowedly 
for  independence,  but  only  for  the  recognition 
of  certain  rights  which  they  claimed  as  British 
subjects.  At  the  same  time  the  struggle  was 
bound  to  become  a  war  for  complete  inde- 
pendence, for  the  conviction  was  growing  that 
in  no  other  way  could  these  rights  be  secured. 
This  feeling  was  voiced  by  Patrick  Henry, 
when  in  the  course  of  an  impassioned  speech  in 
the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates  he  exclaimed : 
"  We  must  fight !  An  appeal  to  the  God  of 
Hosts  is  all  that  is  left  us." 

Early  in  May  a  few  provincials  led  by  Ethan 
Allen  and  Benedict  Arnold  captured  the  British 
fortresses  of  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga  on 
Lake  Champlain. 

The  Second  Continental  Congress  met  in  Phila- 
delphia on  May  10,  1775.  It  was  composed  of 

88 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR  89 

about  the  same  men  as  the  first  with  the  notable 
addition  of  a  tall,  red-haired  young  Radical 
from  Virginia,  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  was  des- 
tined to  have  a  larger  ultimate  influence  upon 
the  development  of  the  nation  whose  birth  was 
near  at  hand  than  any  other  man  of  his  time. 

This  congress  became  by  common  consent  the 
central  government  for  the  colonists,  and  re- 
mained so  for  six  years. 

George  Washington  was  chosen  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  Continental  Army  then  gather- 
ing at  Cambridge.  Henceforward  the  burden  of 
war  rested  mainly  upon  his  shoulders.  The  dif- 
ficulties of  his  position  were  enormous,  and  in- 
creased as  the  war  dragged  on.  To  the  skill,  the 
patience,  the  wisdom,  the  tact,  the  unselfishness 
of  Washington  was  due  in  predominating  meas- 
ure the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  American  cause. 
He  served  through  the  entire  war  without  pay, 
even  devoting  his  private  fortune  to  feeding  and 
clothing  his  destitute  soldiers  when  Congress 
failed  to  provide  for  them. 

The  Combatants  Compared. — The  war  began 
in  New  England,  its  decisive  part  was  enacted 
in  the  Middle  States,  and  it  ended  in  the  South. 
At  no  given  time  were  there  more  than  forty 
thousand  British  or  thirty  thousand  Americans 


9o    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

under  arms,  and  it  frequently  happened  that 
there  was  no  fighting  at  all  for  long  periods. 

Great  Britain  had  immense  wealth  and  could 
borrow  money  in  any  quarter.  The  Americans 
found  it  impossible  to  meet  their  financial  needs. 
Congress  had  no  authority  to  levy  general 
taxes,  and  the  colonial  legislatures  would  not 
impose  local  taxes  for  a  general  purpose  because 
of  mutual  jealousies. 

Great  Britain  had  the  largest  navy  in  the 
world,  while  the  Americans  could  muster  only 
seventeen  vessels.  The  British  troops  were  thor- 
oughly disciplined  and  well  equipped.  As  the 
war  proceeded  England  hired  thirty  thousand 
auxiliaries  from  Germany  and  enlisted  the  Ind- 
ians.* 

*  The  Indians  who  allied  themselves  with  the  British 
made  war  in  true  Indian  fashion,  killing  and  scalping,  re- 
specting neither  age,  infancy,  nor  womanhood.  The  British 
made  little  attempt  to  restrain  them.  A  horde  of  Tories 
and  Indians  swept  into  the  Wyoming  Valley  in  Penn- 
sylvania in  1778  and  massacred  hundreds  of  the  inhab- 
itants. The  Americans  also  tried  to  enlist  the  Indians, 
but  without  much  success.  Those  who  did  fight  on  the 
American  side  were  kept  within  approximate  bounds  of 
civilized  warfare. 

Most  of  the  German  hired  soldiers  were  Hessians.  Con- 
gress offered  them  grants  of  land  if  they  would  desert.  Many 
of  them  accepted  and  settled  in  the  Middle  States.  They 
were  honest,  well-meaning  men  who  were  inhumanly  sold  by 
their  ruler  for  a  price. 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY   WAR  91 

The  American  soldiers  were  undisciplined, 
poorly  clothed,  underpaid,  and  inexperienced. 
Portraits  of  revolutionary  heroes  represent  them 
as  handsomely  arrayed  in  uniforms  of  blue  and 
buff.  An  official  uniform  of  that  description 
was  adopted  by  Congress,  but  as  each  man  had 
to  furnish  his  own  outfit,  and  the  majority  of 
the  soldiers  were  poor,  there  were  few  uniforms 
worn  except  by  officers  of  higher  rank.  The  pri- 
vates and  non-commissioned  officers  generally 
wore  home-spun  dyed  with  the  juice  of  the  but- 
ternut 

The  flags  showed  a  great  variety.  At  first 
the  most  common  one  was  the  "rattlesnake  flag," 
bearing  above  the  figure  of  a  coiled  serpent  the 
motto,  "  Don't  tread  on  me." 

The  first  official  American  flag  was  unfurled 
January  i,  1776.  It  had  thirteen  red  and  white 
stripes  with  the  British  Union  Jack  in  the  cor- 
ner, signifying  that  the  colonies  were  still  a  part 
of  the  British  Empire.  The  raising  of  the 
"  Union  flag,"  as  it  was  called,  over  the  camp 
at  Cambridge  was  at  the  moment  regarded  by 
the  British  commander-in-chief  as  a  token  of 
submission  to  the  king  and  Parliament,  because 
it  displayed  so  prominently  the  crosses  of  St. 
George  and  St.  Andrew. 


92    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  present  national  emblem  was  adopted  by 
a  resolution  of  Congress  June  14,  1777.  The 
British  Jack  was  replaced  by  thirteen  stars,  rep- 
resenting the  thirteen  States,  arranged  in  the 
form  of  a  circle  on  a  field  of  blue. 

The  American  officers,  although  deficient  in 
military  training,  were  natural  commanders  and 
rapidly  developed  technical  knowledge  with  the 
opportunities  of  actual  warfare. 

The  most  serious  drawbacks  to  the  American 
cause  were  the  short  terms  for  which  the  men 
enlisted  in  the  army,  and  the  prevalence  of  the 
spirit  of  jealousy  which  prevented  true  union 
of  effort,  and  often  imperilled  success.  Colonial 
governments,  members  of  Congress,  army  offi- 
cers, and  the  soldiers  and  people  of  the  different 
sections  shared  this  latter  fault  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent.  Only  a  few  great-souled,  far- 
sighted  patriots  like  Washington,  Franklin,  and 
some  others  seemed  to  be  entirely  free  from  per- 
sonal envy  and  ambition. 

Battle  of  Bunker  Hill. — Soon  after  the  affair 
at  Lexington  and  Concord,  General  Gage  re- 
ceived reinforcements  from  England.  The 
British  held  Boston,  while  the  Americans  occu- 
pied the  hills  above  the  town. 

On  June  17  the  British  ships  in  the  harbor 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY  WAR  93 

and  the  land  forces  made  a  combined  attack. 
Twice  the  British  troops  attempted  to  drive  the 
Americans  from  their  position,  but  were  repulsed 
with  heavy  losses.  Their  brilliant  red  coats  and 
white  breeches  offered  a  splendid  target  for  the 
sure  marksmanship  of  the  Americans,  whose 
short-range  muskets  loaded  with  slugs  and  mis- 
siles of  various  sorts  did  terrible  damage.  The 
third  time  the  Americans,  owing  to  the  exhaus- 
tion of  their  ammunition,  were  obliged  to  re- 
treat. Each  side  lost  about  one-third  of  its  num- 
bers, the  British  more  than  a  thousand,  the 
Americans  over  four  hundred.  The  battle  ac- 
complished nothing  of  military  advantage  for 
either  side,  but  the  Americans  were  greatly  en- 
couraged. 

The  Attempt  to  Take  Quebec. — The  revolu- 
tionists hoped  that  the  French  inhabitants  of 
Canada  might  be  persuaded  to  join  them  in  the 
struggle  against  Great  Britain.  While  the  main 
army  was  engaged  around  Boston  two  small 
expeditions  were  secretly  despatched  to  Canada. 
One,  under  the  command  of  General  Richard 
Montgomery,  moved  by  the  Lake  Champlain 
route  and  captured  Montreal.  The  other,  com- 
manded by  Colonel  Benedict  Arnold,  was  sent 
through  the  Maine  woods  to  Quebec,  which  was 


94    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

reached  only  after  weeks  of  heroic  effort  and 
incredible  suffering  from  cold  and  hunger.  Men 
boiled  their  shoes  and  leather  breeches  for  food, 
and  hundreds  fell  exhausted  along  the  line  of 
march. 

On  the  night  of  December  31,  1775,  the 
two  armies  joined  in  a  fierce  though  futile 
attack  on  the  walled  city  of  Quebec.  Mont- 
gomery was  killed  and  Arnold  badly  wounded 
and  taken  prisoner.  The  Canadian  project  was 
the  most  daring  enterprise  of  the  war,  but  it 
failed  to  accomplish  its  purpose.  Canada, 
which  had  no  desire  for  additional  liberties,  re- 
mained loyal  to  the  empire. 

The  British  Evacuate  Boston. — General  Wash- 
ington took  command  of  the  Continental  Army 
July  3,  1775.  On  account  of  the  poor  equip- 
ment of  his  troops,  the  lack  of  discipline,  and 
the  short  terms  for  which  most  of  the  men  had 
enlisted,  he  was  unable  to  commence  active  oper- 
ations against  the  enemy  at  once. 

In  March,  1776,  Washington  seized  and  for- 
tified Dorchester  Heights,  an  eminence  over- 
looking Boston.  General  Sir  William  Howe, 
who  had  succeeded  Gage  as  commander-in-chief 
of  the  British  forces,  finding  the  town  no  longer 
tenable,  embarked  his  troops  on  transports  and 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY  WAR  95 

sailed  to  Halifax.  Strange  to  say,  he  left  a 
large  quantity  of  cannon,  muskets,  powder,  and 
bullets,  practically  making  the  Americans  a  pres- 
ent of  his  military  stores. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence. — Until  the 
spring  of  1776  the  colonists  were  not  avowedly 
contending  for  separation  from  the  empire  of 
Great  Britain,  but  only  for  a  larger  measure  of 
self-government.  They  wished  to  be  free  from 
the  control  of  Parliament,  but  were  willing  to 
recognize  the  king,  since  his  power  alone  was 
not  great  enough  to  interfere  seriously  with  their 
liberties.  But  when  Congress  again  petitioned 
for  a  redress  of  grievances,  and  as  before  the 
petition  was  ignored,  all  hope  of  reconciliation 
was  abandoned  and  Congress  determined  to 
renounce  British  authority  completely. 

The  growing  sentiment  for  independence  was 
in  no  small  degree  the  work  of  the  Englishman, 
Thomas  Paine,  who  in  a  newspaper  series  of 
effective  articles  under  the  pen-name  of  "  Com- 
mon Sense  "  had  converted  a  great  number  of 
his  new  compatriots  to  radical  ideals. 

Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  introduced 
a  resolution  "  that  these  United  Colonies  are, 
and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  indepen- 
dent states."  The  resolution  was  passed,  though 


96    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

not  unanimously.  Thomas  Jefferson  drew  up 
a  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  was 
adopted  on  the  evening  of  July  4,  1776,  and 
signed  August  2d.  This  instrument  proclaimed 
officially  the  birth  of  the  United  States.  Every 
man  who  affixed  his  name  to  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  guilty  of  treason  under  Brit- 
ish law  and  liable  to  the  penalty  of  death.  The 
former  colonies  assumed  the  title  of  "  States," 
and  reorganized  their  governments  on  more  pop- 
ular lines. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  is  perhaps 
the  most  remarkable  state-paper  in  history.  Its 
language,  vehement,  earnest,  eloquent,  is  ad- 
mirably suited  to  its  purposes.  It  is  impossi- 
ble to  read  its  familiar  phrases  or  to  scan  its 
immortal  signatures  without  an  answering  thrill 
of  sympathy  across  the  sweep  of  years.  It  not 
only  contains  a  clear  statement  of  the  issues  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  America,  but  it  gives 
explicit  and  emphatic  utterance  to  what  was  in 
1776  a  novel  political  theory;  namely,  that  the 
true  object  of  government  is  to  serve  the  peo- 
ple, and  that  when  their  government  fails  to  do 
this  the  people  have  a  right  to  change  or  over- 
throw it.  This  idea  had  been  advanced  by  a 
few  writers  in  England,  France,  Holland,  and 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY  WAR  97 

Italy,  but  the  Revolutionary  patriots  were  the 
first  to  invoke  the  principle  of  popular  sover- 
eignty in  a  practical  experiment  of  empire- 
building. 

Philosophically  the  document  abounds  with 
loose  assumptions  having  no  basis  in  fact  nor 
promise  of  fulfilment  in  the  possibilities  of  the 
human  race.  Indeed  the  academic  simplicity 
with  which  some  of  its  announcements  are  ha- 
bitually received  and  quoted  has  perverted  great 
truths  vital  to  all  human  interest  and  social 
progress.  In  the  mouth  of  the  ranting  dema- 
gogue or  the  brain  of  the  ignoramus  the  catch- 
phrases  of  this  celebrated  charter  become  preg- 
nant with  potentialities  of  mischief  and  crime. 
Clothed  in  the  flamboyant  rhetoric  of  the  agi- 
tator and  hurled  in  frenzied  appeal  at  incarnate 
discontent,  the  dogma  of  equality  breeds  anarchy 
and  ruin. 

But  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  not 
to  be  indiscriminately  condemned  as  a  mere 
philosophical  vagary  any  more  than  it  is  to  be 
blindly  venerated  as  a  repository  of  political 
truth  or  an  infallible  assertion  of  eternal  and 
axiomatic  principles.  Rather  is  it  to  be  judged 
by  what  it  accomplished  in  firing  the  national 
heart  and  in  developing  the  policy  of  a  critical 


98    BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  heroic  time.  It  suggests  the  birthday  of  a 
great  nation  whose  achievements  are  the  admira- 
tion of  history. 

American  Reverses. — Declarations  and  mani- 
festoes, however  powerful  from  the  standpoint 
of  agitation,  are  impotent  to  work  out  the  liber- 
ties of  a  free  people.  Revolutions  are  an  appeal 
to  force.  Declarations  are  sealed  with  blood, 
and  ratified,  if  at  all,  by  the  triumph  of  arms. 

The  crucial  stage  of  the  struggle  for  indepen- 
dence now  began.  The  British,  unable  to  make 
headway  in  New  England,  transferred  their 
operations  to  the  Middle  States,  which  offered 
a  better  point  of  attack,  and  whose  people  in- 
cluded many  loyalists. 

General  Howe's  plan  was  to  take  New  York 
and  to  run  a  line  of  defence  northward  along 
the  Hudson  River  and  Lake  Champlain  to  Can- 
ada, thus  separating  New  England  from  the 
rest  of  the  country.  Anticipating  Howe's  pur- 
pose, Washington  moved  his  forces  from  Boston 
to  the  protection  of  New  York.  The  British 
outnumbered  the  Americans  two  to  one.  At  the 
battle  of  Long  Island  (August  27, 1776)  Wash- 
ington was  defeated,  and  again  at  White  Plains 
in  October.  Two  forts  on  the  Hudson  fell  into 
British  hands. 


THE    REVOLUTIONARY   WAR  99 

Had  Howe  followed  up  his  victories  he 
might  have  crushed  the  patriot  cause  then 
and  there.  American  enthusiasm  began  to 
wane  under  disaster,  the  army  dwindled,  and 
Congress  was  confronted  with  bankruptcy. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  splendid  services  of 
Robert  Morris,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Phila- 
delphia, the  Revolution  might  have  failed  at 
this  critical  juncture  for  lack  of  financial  sup- 
port. Pledging  his  personal  credit  he  raised  a 
loan  for  the  Government  sufficient  to  tide  over 
the  emergency.  For  a  time  the  private  fortunes 
of  Washington  and  Morris  were  the  only  thing 
that  kept  an  army  in  the  field. 

Trenton  and  Princeton. — At  this  crisis  occurred 
one  of  the  brilliant  exploits  of  the  war.  The 
town  of  Trenton,  N.  J.,  was  a  British  outpost 
defended  by  one  thousand  Hessians.  On  Christ- 
mas night,  1776,  Washington  crossed  the  Dela- 
ware River  from  the  Pennsylvania  side,  and, 
taking  the  Hessians  by  surprise,  captured  nearly 
the  entire  force.  The  British  General,  Corn- 
wallis,  at  once  started  in  pursuit,  but  Washing- 
ton by  a  clever  manoeuvre  outwitted  him,  and 
the  British  were  defeated  in  a  sharp  encounter 
at  Princeton. 

These  victories  partly  retrieved  the  misfort- 


ioo  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

vines  of  the  previous  summer  and  autumn,  and 
revived  the  courage  of  the  despondent  Ameri- 
cans. Frederick  the  Great,  King  of  Prussia  and 
foremost  general  in  Europe,  declared  that 
Washington's  success  at  Trenton  and  Princeton 
would  compare  with  the  achievements  of  the 
most  famous  soldiers  in  the  world's  history. 

The  British  in  Philadelphia.— In  July,  1777, 
General  Howe  with  eighteen  thousand  British 
troops  embarked  at  New  York  and  landed  at 
Elkton,  Md.,  with  the  intention  of  taking  Phila- 
delphia. Washington  hastened  from  New  Jer- 
sey to  defend  the  city,  but  was  defeated  at  the 
battle  of  Brandywine.  Quickly  recovering,  he 
again  engaged  the  British  at  Germantown,  but 
was  compelled  to  retire  by  reason  of  a  heavy 
fog  which  made  the  Americans  mistake  each 
other  for  the  enemy.  Congress  fled  to  Lancas- 
ter, and  afterward  to  York,  where  it  remained 
for  nine  months.  In  October  the  British  capt- 
ured two  forts  on  the  Delaware  River  and  took 
Philadelphia,  where  they  went  into  winter  quar- 
ters, pleasantly  entertained  by  the  loyalists  of 
the  city. 

The  Surrender  of  Burgoyne. — While  Wash- 
ington was  encountering  reverses  in  Pennsyl- 
vania another  division  of  the  American  Army 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY  WAR  101 

was  winning  laurels  in  New  York.  At  the  same 
time  that  Howe  was  preparing  to  take  Phila- 
delphia General  Burgoyne  with  ten  thousand 
British,  Tories,  and  Indians  moved  down  from 
Canada  toward  New  York  with  the  object  of 
cutting  off  New  England  from  the  Middle 
States.  Had  Howe  gone  north  to  cooperate 
with  Burgoyne  instead  of  going  south  to  take 
Philadelphia  the  plan  would  have  succeeded. 
It  was  the  intention  of  the  British  Ministry  that 
both  generals  should  cooperate,  and  peremptory 
orders  to  this  effect  were  addressed  to  Howe  and 
Burgoyne.  But  Lord  George  Germain,  in  the 
pleasurable  excitement  of  a  holiday  trip,  forgot 
to  despatch  the  instructions  of  the  ministry  until 
too  late.  His  negligence  proved  the  salvation 
of  the  American  cause. 

At  first  Burgoyne  met  with  little  opposition, 
but  when  the  Americans  concentrated  upon  him 
his  disasters  began.  Several  detachments  of  the 
British  Army  were  defeated  in  separate  encoun- 
ters. The  main  army  of  six  thousand,  finding 
itself  vanquished  in  battle,  out  of  provisions,  and 
hemmed  in  by  the  Americans,  surrendered  at 
Saratoga  on  October  17,  1777,  to  General 
Gates,  the  American  commander. 

Gates  was  wholly  inefficient.     He  had  been 


loz  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

appointed  by  Congress  for  purely  political  rea- 
sons. The  success  of  the  campaign  was  chiefly 
due  to  the  skill  and  heroism  of  Benedict  Arnold. 
Nevertheless  Gates  received  all  the  credit,  while 
the  real  victor  was  ignored. 

The  Conway  Cabal. — One  result  of  Gates's  un- 
deserved prominence  was  a  conspiracy  known  as 
the  Conway  Cabal,  from  the  name  of  its  author, 
General  Thomas  Conway,  to  remove  Washing- 
ton from  the  command  of  the  Continental  Army 
and  install  Gates  in  his  place.  Several  officers 
and  members  of  Congress  were  implicated  in 
the  affair.  The  intrigue  aroused  great  popu- 
lar indignation,  and  was  promptly  crushed  by 
Washington. 

The  Winter  at  Valley  Forge.— When  General 
Howe  took  Philadelphia  the  Americans  went 
into  quarters  at  Valley  Forge.  The  winter  of 
1777—78  was  unusually  severe.  The  soldiers 
were  half-naked  and  starving;  many  froze  to 
death.  In  March  the  army  was  reduced  by 
death,  desertion,  and  the  expiration  of  terms  of 
enlistment  to  four  thousand  men.  Howe  with 
his  twenty  thousand  British  troops  in  the  near-by 
city  of  Philadelphia  could  easily  have  destroyed 
the  depleted  American  Army. 

Terrible  as  were  these  experiences,  the  win- 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY  WAR  103 

ter  was  fruitful  of  one  great  benefit.  Baron 
Von  Steuben,  a  distinguished  Prussian  general 
who  had  joined  the  patriots  as  a  volunteer,  de- 
voted himself  to  drilling  the  raw,  undisciplined 
recruits  in  European  tactics.  When  the  winter 
passed  and  the  army  was  ready  to  take  the  field 
its  efficiency  was  vastly  increased.  The  good 
results  of  Steuben's  training  were  seen  through- 
out the  remainder  of  the  war. 

Several  other  eminent  foreigners  freely  gave 
their  aid  to  the  American  cause — Pulaski,  Kos- 
ciusko,  De  Kalb,  and  most  famous  of  all,  the 
Marquis  de  Lafayette,  a  young  French  noble- 
man, who  became  a  member  of  the  military 
family  of  Washington  in  1777  and  rendered  val- 
uable assistance  as  soldier  and  counsellor. 

Revolutionary  Finance. — The  reason  why  the 
soldiers  were  so  destitute,  not  only  at  Valley 
Forge,  but  throughout  the  entire  war,  was  not 
because  food  and  clothing  were  scarce,  but  be- 
cause Congress  had  no  money  with  which  to  buy 
them.  When  the  colonies  created  the  Continen- 
tal Congress  they  withheld  from  it  the  power  to 
levy  taxes,  so  necessary  to  carrying  on  successful 
war,  fearing  that  such  power  would  put  the  cen- 
tral government  beyond  their  control.  When 
Congress  later  requested  the  States  to  pay  their 


104  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

proportionate  shares  of  the  general  expense  they 
refused. 

In  order  to  provide  funds  Congress  issued 
paper  money,  which  consists  of  written  prom- 
ises to  pay  certain  sums  in  cash  on  demand. 
Paper  as  a  commodity,  unlike  the  precious  met- 
als, has  no  exchange  value.  Its  circulating 
power  is  conferred  upon  it  by  law.  Paper  money 
is  purely  promissory  and  representative,  and  is 
good  only  so  long  as  people  have  confidence  in 
the  ability  of  the  government  to  redeem  its 
pledges.  Should  that  confidence  be  destroyed, 
the  money  which  is  founded  upon  it  becomes 
worthless.  The  danger  which  inheres  in  the  use 
of  paper  money  is  liability  to  over-issue,  which 
inevitably  leads  to  depreciation. 

At  first  people  accepted  the  "  continental  " 
money,  as  it  was  called.  But  so  much  more  of 
it  was  issued  than  could  ever  be  redeemed  that 
the  notes  became  valueless.  Before  long  it  took 
$600  in  this  currency  to  buy  a  pair  of  boots,  and 
a  bushel  of  oats  cost  $200.  By  1781  one  silver 
dollar  was  worth  a  thousand  in  paper. 

While  Congress  was  flooding  the  country 
with  worthless  paper  money,  the  individual 
States  were  doing  the  same  thing  within  their 
borders.  The  financial  evils  of  the  Revolution- 


THE    REVOLUTIONARY   WAR  105 

ary  period  were  felt  for  many  years  after  the 
war  closed. 

France  to  the  Rescue. — After  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  Congress  commissioned  Benja- 
min Franklin,  Silas  Deane,  and  Arthur  Lee  to 
visit  the  court  of  France  and  negotiate  a  treaty 
of  alliance  with  that  country,  and  also  with 
Spain,  which  was  ruled  by  the  same  royal  fam- 
ily. The  French  Government  desired  the  hu- 
miliation of  England,  but  knowing  the  weak 
condition  of  the  United  States  hesitated  to  form 
an  alliance,  fearing  that  it  would  have  to  bear 
the  brunt  of  the  struggle.  The  surrender  of 
Burgoyne  convinced  France  that  the  United 
States  had  a  chance  to  win,  and  a  treaty  of  com- 
merce and  alliance  was  signed  early  in  1778,  by 
which  the  United  States  was  recognized  as  an 
independent  nation  and  French  military  and 
financial  aid  promised. 

The  recognition  of  the  United  States  by 
France  was  an  obvious  breach  of  neutrality. 
International  law  prescribes  but  two  alternative 
conditions  under  which  neutral  nations  may  rec- 
ognize the  independence  of  a  community  in  re- 
volt against  its  parent  state — either  separation 
must  be  actually  and  unqualifiedly  achieved,  or 
else  ultimate  success  must  be  morally  certain. 


io6  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Now  the  outlook  for  the  United  States,  despite 
the  victory  at  Saratoga,  was  never  less  promis- 
ing than  in  1778.  Not  only  had  independence 
not  been  achieved,  but  the  probabilities  were  that 
it  never  would  be.  The  credit  of  the  Continen- 
tal Congress  was  hopelessly  impaired,  the  army 
dwindling,  and  public  support  half-hearted  and 
uncertain. 

Great  Britain  promptly  declared  war  against 
France  and  offered  the  Americans  all  that  they 
had  ever  demanded  and  more  if  they  would 
return  to  the  British  fold.  But  it  was  too  late 
for  conciliation.  The  United  States  would  ac- 
cept nothing  short  of  absolute  independence, 
which  the  French  alliance  now  seemed  to  insure. 

The  Government  of  France  was  despotic  in 
type,  and  not  at  all  in  sympathy  with  the  repub- 
lican ideals  of  England's  disaffected  subjects. 
Its  motive  in  coming  to  the  assistance  of  the 
United  States  was  to  square  accounts  for  the 
loss  of  Canada,  and  other  grievances  of  long 
standing. 

The  highly  intelligent  and  responsive  French 
middle  classes,  on  the  contrary,  were  enthusiastic 
for  the  American  cause  per  se,  since  to  them  it 
represented  that  spirit  of  liberalism  which  was 
within  a  few  years  to  achieve  their  own  emanci- 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY  WAR  107 

pation  from  an  oppressive  form  of  government 
and  an  outgrown  social  regime. 

But  whatever  the  motive  of  her  Government, 
or  the  legal  quality  of  its  action,  the  timely  aid 
of  France  saved  the  American  cause  when  fail- 
ure seemed  probable.  The  successful  negotia- 
tion of  the  French  alliance  was  due  not  so  much 
to  the  efficiency  of  the  commissioners  as  it  was 
to  the  wisdom  and  diplomacy  of  Colonel  John 
Laurens,  a  member  of  Washington's  military 
staff,  who  had  been  despatched  as  special  envoy 
to  France. 

Naval  Exploits. — The  American  Navy  consisted 
mainly  of  "  privateers,"  vessels  owned  by  pri- 
vate parties  and  commissioned  by  Congress  to 
destroy  British  commerce.  After  the  French 
alliance  was  consummated  Benjamin  Franklin 
purchased  five  old  ships  which  had  been  dis- 
carded by  the  French  Government  because  prac- 
tically worthless,  armed  and  manned  them,  and 
placed  the  fleet  under  the  command  of  John  Paul 
Jones  of  the  United  States  Navy — as  brilliant  a 
commander  as  ever  appeared  in  the  history  of 
naval  warfare.  On  September  25,  1779,  with  a 
single  ship  he  challenged  two  superior  English 
frigates  off  the  coast  of  Scotland.  After  one  of 
the  most  desperate  sea-fights  in  history,  Jones 


io8  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

sank  one  of  the  English  vessels  and  captured  the 
other.  His  own  ship,  the  Bonhomme  Richard, 
was  so  badly  damaged  that  she  sank  within  a 
few  hours  after  the  victory. 

Jones  received  scant  recognition  from  the 
Continental  Congress.  After  the  war  he  served 
as  admiral  in  the  Russian  Navy,  and  died  in 
Paris  in  1799.  His  burial-place  was  recently 
discovered  by  General  Horace  Porter,  Ameri- 
can Ambassador  to  France,  who  had  the  body 
brought  to  this  country,  where  it  was  interred 
with  ceremony  at  the  United  States  Naval  Acad- 
emy in  June,  1905. 

The  Battle  of  Momnouth.— When  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  who  had  been  appointed  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  British  Army  in  place  of  General 
Howe,  learned  of  the  French  alliance,  he  aban- 
doned Philadelphia  to  concentrate  all  the  Brit- 
ish forces  around  New  York  before  the  French 
Army  could  arrive.  Washington  immediately 
started  in  pursuit  and  overtook  the  British  rear- 
guard at  Monmouth  Court-house  in  the  village 
of  Freehold,  N.  J.  After  a  sharp  but  indecisive 
battle  (June  28,  1778)  the  British  withdrew  to 
New  York,  which  they  held  until  the  end  of  the 
war.  Washington  took  position  in  the  high- 
lands of  the  Hudson,  where  he  could  best 


THE    REVOLUTIONARY  WAR  109 

operate  against  Sir  Henry  Clinton  in  case  the 
British  commander  should  attempt  a  hostile 
movement. 

Monmouth  was  the  last  important  battle  in 
the  Middle  States;  after  1778  the  South  was 
the  seat  of  war. 

Stony  Point. — One  of  the  most  heroic  and 
spectacular  exploits  of  the  Revolution  was  the 
capture  by  General  Anthony  Wayne  of  Stony 
Point,  a  strong  British  fortress  on  the  Hudson. 
On  the  night  of  July  15,  1779,  Wayne  with 
twelve  hundred  light  infantry  made  a  rapid  and 
stealthy  assault  upon  the  works.  To  guard 
against  betrayal,  which  a  random  shot  would 
cause,  the  men  were  not  permitted  to  load  their 
muskets.  Charging  up  the  steep  ascent  at  dead 
of  night,  the  garrison  was  overpowered  and  the 
fortifications  carried  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 
Stony  Point  proved  to  be  of  slight  strategic 
value,  and  was  soon  abandoned.  It  is  the 
audacity  and  heroism  of  its  capture  that  makes 
the  incident  memorable. 

Before  tracing  the  closing  campaigns  there 
remains  to  be  noted  an  event  which  nearly 
proved  the  ruin  of  the  American  cause. 

The  Treason  of  Arnold.— The  most  important 
fortress  in  the  United  States  was  West  Point  on 


no  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  Hudson,  commanded  by  Benedict  Arnold. 
Embittered  and  disheartened  by  the  injustice  of 
his  critics  and  the  ingratitude  of  Congress  in 
failing  to  recognize  his  splendid  services  and  in 
promoting  less  deserving  officers  over  him, 
Arnold  concocted  a  plot  to  sell  West  Point  to 
the  enemy  in  exchange  for  $30,000  and  a  briga- 
dier-general's commission  in  the  British  Army. 
Major  Andre,  a  young  British  officer,  was  made 
the  medium  of  negotiation.  As  Andre  was 
passing  through  the  American  lines  he  was  capt- 
ured by  three  American  soldiers,  and  the  plans 
of  West  Point  were  found  concealed  in  his  stock- 
ings. The  plot  was  discovered  and  West  Point 
saved.  Arnold  narrowly  escaped,  but  Andre, 
in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  war,  was  hung 
as  a  spy. 

The  tragic  fate  of  the  captive  was  regretted 
by  friend  and  foe  alike.  He  was  brave,  mag- 
netic, and  accomplished.  No  American  soldier 
would  act  as  his  executioner.  The  man  who  did 
blackened  his  face,  and  his  identity  was  never 
discovered. 

The  War  in  the  South.— As  early  as  1776  the 
British  had  attempted  to  gain  a  foothold  in  the 
South.  A  fleet  attacked  Charleston,  but  was  re- 
pulsed by  the  American  fire  from  Fort  Moultrie 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY  WAR  in 

in  the  harbor.  Late  in  the  year  1778  the  Brit- 
ish, having  failed  in  New  England  and  the  Mid- 
dle States,  once  more  turned  their  attention  to 
the  South.  Savannah  and  Charleston  were 
taken,  and  by  1780  the  British  were  masters  of 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina. 

Congress,  thinking  to  match  the  British  com- 
mander, Cornwallis,  with  a  greater  general  sent 
Gates  to  the  South.  But  he  who  had  falsely 
won  the  credit  for  Burgoyne's  surrender  and 
had  conspired  to  overthrow  Washington  proved 
utterly  unable  to  meet  the  situation.  After  a 
crushing  defeat  at  Camden  he  was  recalled,  and 
the  command  of  the  Southern  Army  intrusted 
to  Nathanael  Greene.  In  a  series  of  brilliant 
campaigns  Greene  won  back  all  that  had  been 
lost.  Cornwallis,  completely  outgeneralled,  re- 
tired into  Virginia. 

The  war  in  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  was  of 
a  peculiarly  bitter  nature.  There  were  many 
loyalists  in  those  States,  and  the  hatred  between 
them  and  the  patriots  constantly  expressed  itself 
in  acts  of  wanton  cruelty. 

The  Southern  campaigns  developed  some  re- 
markable cavalry  leaders.  Colonel  Henry  Lee 
— "  Light-horse  Harry  " — with  his  celebrated 
Legion  was  the  right  arm  of  Greene's  army. 


U2  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Marion  and  Sumter  with  their  independent 
bands  of  rangers  rendered  indispensable  service 
in  surprising  British  detachments,  destroying 
wagon-trains,  and  capturing  supplies.  They  fre- 
quently lay  concealed  all  day  in  the  swamps, 
dashing  out  at  night  to  surprise  the  British. 

Yorktown. — The  summer  of  1781  arrived  and 
found  Washington  a  few  miles  north  of  New 
York  planning  an  attack  upon  the  city,  which 
was  held  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton.  Greene  was  in 
South  Carolina.  Cornwallis  was  in  Virginia 
engaged  in  a  vain  attempt  to  catch  the  youth- 
ful Lafayette,  who  with  a  small  body  of  Amer- 
icans had  been  sent  to  Virginia  to  stop  the 
depredations  of  the  traitor  Arnold. 

In  August  Washington  learned  that  a  French 
fleet  and  army  would  soon  arrive  in  Chesapeake 
Bay.  Leaving  New  York,  he  hastened  to  Vir- 
ginia to  cooperate  with  the  French  against 
Cornwallis,  who  had  established  himself  at 
Yorktown.  The  allied  forces  formed  a  half- 
circle  about  the  town,  and  after  a  siege  of  three 
weeks,  marked  by  much  hard  fighting,  Corn- 
wallis surrendered  on  October  19,  1781.  This 
put  an  end  to  military  operations,  although  arti- 
cles of  peace  were  not  signed  until  September 
3,  1783- 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY   WAR  113 

The  Treaty  of  Peace. — Great  Britain  acknowl- 
edged the  independence  of  the  United  States, 
whose  boundaries  were  determined  as  follows: 
Canada  on  the  north;  the  Mississippi  River  on 
the  west;  Florida,  including  the  lower  part  of 
the  present  States  of  Mississippi  and  Louisiana, 
became  the  southern  boundary. 

Owing  to  a  lack  of  exact  knowledge  of  Amer- 
ican geography  on  the  part  of  the  peace  commis- 
sioners some  of  these  boundaries  were  indefinite 
at  several  points,  which  gave  rise  to  many  dis- 
putes in  after  years  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States. 

The  last  place  to  be  evacuated  by  the  British 
was  New  York.  On  November  25  the  rem- 
nant of  their  forces  embarked  on  transports  and 
the  American  troops  entered  the  city  amid  the 
huzzas  of  the  rejoicing  multitude.  The  flag  of 
England,  which  the  retiring  British  had  left  fly- 
ing over  the  town  in  token  of  their  unwilling 
departure,  was  torn  away  and  the  stars  and 
stripes  nailed  to  the  staff.  After  an  affectionate 
farewell  to  his  officers,  companions  throughout 
eight  distressing  but  heroic  years,  Washington 
went  to  Annapolis,  where  Congress  was  in  ses- 
sion, and  resigned  his  commission  as  commander- 
in-chief.  The  army  was  disbanded,  and  the 


ii4  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

American  people  were  free  to  begin  that  perilous 
experiment  in  republican  government  which  all 
the  world  was  intently  awaiting. 

Revolutionary  Doctrine  and  Modern  Practice. — 
So  far  as  concerns  the  establishment  and  recog- 
nition of  the  theories  of  government  for  which 
the  war  was  ostensibly  undertaken,  the  Revolu- 
tionary struggle  was  barren  of  result.  Great 
Britain  has  never  admitted  the  correctness  of 
the  principles  for  which  the  Americans  con- 
tended. Her  colonies  to-day,  though  enjoying 
practical  immunity,  are  theoretically  subject  to 
whatever  measure  of  control  the  British  Parlia- 
ment in  its  wisdom  or  its  whim  may  see  fit  to  ex- 
ercise over  them.  Nor  have  the  United  States 
in  their  individual  or  collective  practice  adhered 
closely  to  Revolutionary  doctrine. 

The  national  Government  has  steadfastly  de- 
nied home  rule  to  its  territories  and  dependen- 
cies, which  are  under  far  greater  political  limi- 
tations to-day  than  were  the  colonies  in  1775. 
The  latter  were  and  the  former  are  taxed  by 
an  external  sovereign  power  upon  whose  irre- 
sponsible will  their  rights  and  liberties  depend, 
and  without  any  substantial  semblance  to  a 
"  right  "  of  representation  in  the  national  coun- 
cils. True,  the  territories  may,  and  most  of 


THE   REVOLUTIONARY   WAR  115 

them  have  become  States,  but  there  is  no  con- 
stitutional or  other  guarantee  that  they  shall.  It 
was  the  plain  intention  of  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  that  the  Republic  should,  if  it 
wanted  to,  hold  dependencies  indefinitely  and 
never  allow  them  to  become  anything  else. 

Colonial  liberties  in  prerevolutionary  days 
possessed  one  highly  effective  safeguard  which 
constituted  an  immense  popular  advantage  over 
the  territorial  and  colonial  system  of  the  United 
States.  In  the  former  case,  governors  and 
judges,  though  appointed  by  the  crown,  were 
dependent  for  their  salaries  upon  the  colonial 
assemblies,  which  could  and  often  did  use  the 
power  which  that  fact  gave  them  to  defeat  the 
monarchical  bias  of  royal  officials. 

It  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  Anglo-Amer- 
ican jurisprudence  that  the  judiciary  shall  be 
irremovable  by  the  executive  power.  This  guar- 
antee has  always  been  withheld  from  the  terri- 
tories, and  there  is  no  territorial  judge  who  is  not 
liable  to  removal  at  any  time  and  for  any  cause 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States — which 
suggests  the  question,  What  becomes  of  the 
inviolability  of  the  courts? 

The  United  States  Government  has  repeat- 
edly acquired  by  purchase  and  conquest  alien 


ii6  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

peoples,  over  whom  it  has  ruled  without  the 
"  consent  of  the  governed." 

Nor  has  the  nation  recognized  in  its  domestic 
policy  the  right  of  revolution,  expressly  affirmed 
by  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  be  inher- 
ent in  all  communities,  and  upon  which  the  col- 
onies justified  their  separation  from  the  mother- 
country  in  1776.  For  when  eighty-five  years 
later  the  seceding  States  of  the  South,  which  were 
"  communities  "  in  the  full  acceptation  of  the 
term  as  employed  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, resorted  to  the  same  "  right,"  the 
United  States  Government  invaded  their  terri- 
tory, destroyed  the  property  of  their  citizens, 
and  put  to  violent  death  as  many  as  possible  of 
those  inhabitants  who  dared  to  resist.  And 
when  the  United  States  Government  had  finally 
completed  the  subjugation  of  the  seceding  com- 
munities, it  deprived  them  of  statehood,  denied 
them  home  rule  and  Constitutional  protection, 
substituted  Federal  military  jurisdiction  for  local 
government,  and  forced  upon  them  the  obnox- 
ious alternative  of  either  accepting  certain  illegal 
limitations  upon  their  subsequent  political  free- 
dom or  remaining  permanently  in  the  status  of 
conquered  territory. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  governments  do  not, 


THE    REVOLUTIONARY   WAR  117 

as  the  Declaration  of  Independence  broadly  as- 
serts, "  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  con- 
sent of  the  governed.''  Governments  have  no 
just  powers  in  the  accurate  and  philosophical 
meaning  of  the  term.  They  have  necessary 
powers,  since  the  constant  presence  of  recognized 
authority  is  essential  to  the  integrity  and  safety 
of  the  social  structure,  but  these  powers  are 
usurped  and  in  no  sense  delegated. 

Nor  does  there  seem  to  be  outside  the  sover- 
eign power  any  such  thing  as  an  "  inalienable 
right,"  but  all  rights  inhere  in  the  State  by 
which  they  are,  justly  or  unjustly,  bestowed, 
withheld,  or  withdrawn  at  will. 


CHAPTER    X 

FORMATION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERN- 
MENT 

AT  the  close  of  the  Revolution  the  out- 
look for  the  United  States  was  in  some 
respects  more  discouraging  than  it  had 
been  at  any  time  during  the  war.  The  country 
was  prosperous,  trade  was  increasing,  and  edu- 
cation advancing;  but  Congress  had  lost  the  re- 
spect of  the  people,  the  States  engaged  in  fre- 
quent quarrels  with  each  other,  and  finances 
were  more  disordered  than  ever.  The  war  had 
driven  the  States  into  a  temporary  union,  but 
now  that  they  had  achieved  their  independence 
the  tendency  was  toward  separation.  Had  this 
tendency  been  followed  the  United  States  would 
probably  have  fallen  an  early  prey  to  some  Eu- 
ropean power  or  coalition. 

The  Confederation. — In  1777  the  Continental 
Congress,  realizing  its  own  weakness,  had  pro- 
posed a  plan  of  union  called  the  Articles  of 
Confederation.  Twelve  States  accepted,  but 

118 


THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT     119 

Maryland  refused.  As  unanimous  consent  was 
required  the  plan  failed  of  immediate  adoption. 
In  1781,  when  the  war  was  practically  ended, 
Maryland  gave  her  consent  to  the  Articles,  and 
all  the  States  then  went  into  the  Confederation. 

The  new  Government,  while  an  improvement 
on  the  Continental  Congress,  exhibited  the  same 
serious  defect — a  lack  of  adequate  authority  to 
deal  with  matters  of  public  concern.  There 
were  no  national  courts  of  law.  Congress  had 
a  very  limited  power  of  taxation,  and  no  con- 
trol whatever  over  foreign  or  interstate  com- 
merce. No  important  legislation  could  be  en- 
acted without  the  consent  of  nine  States,  which 
was  often  impossible  to  obtain  on  account  of 
jealousies  and  clashing  interests.  The  individ- 
ual States  not  only  trespassed  upon  each  other, 
but  they  violated  international  law  and  the 
treaties  with  France  and  Holland,  which  infrac- 
tions the  general  Government  was  powerless  to 
prevent. 

The  North-west  Territory  and  the  Ordinance  of 
1787. — The  Confederation  accomplished  one  un- 
deniable benefit.  The  North-west  Territory, 
lying  between  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers 
and  the  Great  Lakes,  was  claimed  in  portions 
by  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and 


120  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Virginia.  For  the  sake  of  the  public  good  these 
States  agreed  to  surrender  their  several  claims  to 
the  Confederation,  and  place  the  entire  region 
under  the  control  of  Congress.  In  1787  Con- 
gress passed  an  ordinance  for  the  government 
of  the  North-west  Territory,  providing  for  its 
future  division  into  States  and  forever  excluding 
slavery.  The  region  rapidly  filled  with  settlers, 
and  in  time  produced  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indi- 
ana, Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin. 

The  Constitutional  Convention.  —  Conditions 
steadily  grew  worse  under  the  Confederation 
until  at  last  Congress  reluctantly  issued  a  call 
for  a  general  convention  to  revise  the  Articles 
of  Confederation. 

In  May,  1787,  fifty-five  delegates  from 
twelve  States  met  in  Independence  Hall,  Phila- 
delphia. Rhode  Island  alone  refused  to  partici- 
pate. Her  Government  was  determined  to  con- 
tinue the  use  of  paper  money,  and  feared  that 
this  policy  would  be  forbidden  by  the  Conven- 
tion. 

An  abler  body  than  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention never  assembled.  Most  of  its  members 
had  been  prominent  in  the  Revolution,  and 
some  are  among  the  best  and  wisest  statesmen 
in  our  national  history.  George  Washington 


THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  121 

was  unanimously  chosen  to  preside.  Among 
the  specially  distinguished  and  useful  repre- 
sentatives were  Alexander  Hamilton,  James 
Madison,  Roger  Sherman,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
James  Wilson,  John  Dickinson,  and  Gouverneur 
Morris. 

The  Convention  decided  that  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  were  not  worth  amending,  that 
the  only  way  to  cure  the  evils  of  which  every 
one  was  complaining  was  to  organize  an  en- 
tirely new  government.  The  delegates  repre- 
sented extremes  of  opinion  on  all  the  vital  sub- 
jects of  debate,  and  final  action  was  reached  only 
by  mutual  concession. 

State  or  National  Sovereignty? — The  crucial 
point  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Convention  was 
the  question  whether  the  new  nation  should  be 
superior  to  the  individual  States  or  whether  each 
State  should  retain  its  supremacy,  and  delegate 
only  a  few  of  its  powers  to  the  central  Govern- 
ment. 

Alexander  Hamilton  and  several  others  fa- 
vored a  highly  centralized  and  aristocratic  gov- 
ernment. They  knew  that  the  American  people 
would  never  tolerate  a  monarchy,  but  they 
wanted  to  adopt  the  essential  features  of  mon- 
archy under  the  guise  of  republican  forms. 


122  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Their  opponents  insisted  that  each  State  should 
surrender  only  minor  powers  to  the  national 
Government,  reserving  its  most  important  ones. 

Slavery.  —  The  Southern  people  held  vast 
numbers  of  slaves.  The  people  of  the  North 
had  also  owned  slaves  in  earlier  days,  but  as 
slavery  had  never  been  profitable  in  the  North 
it  had  almost  disappeared.  Agriculture  was  the 
great  mainstay  of  the  South,  and  negro  labor 
was  best  adapted  to  the  requirements  of  the 
large  plantations.  In  the  North,  where  the  cli- 
mate was  cooler  and  occupations  diversified, 
white  men  were  almost  universally  employed. 

Some  of  the  Northern  members  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention  proposed  to  forbid  sla- 
very altogether,  but  many  of  the  Southern  dele- 
gates declared  that  they  would  not  come  into 
the  Union  unless  slavery  should  be  both  recog- 
nized and  protected.  The  South  also  wanted 
slaves  to  be  counted  in  making  up  the  basis  of 
representation  in  Congress.  The  North  op- 
posed this  demand,  contending  that  since  slaves 
were  property  and  had  no  vote  they  should  not 
be  counted  at  all.  At  that  time  negroes  were 
still  being  brought  over  from  Africa.  Most  of 
the  Southern  States  desired  to  stop  the  slave- 
trade  at  once — Maryland  and  Virginia  had  al- 


THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT     123 

ready  done  so — but  South  Carolina,  backed  by 
the  slave-trading  interests  of  the  North,  ob- 
jected. 

Finally  all  the  States  agreed  to  three  pro- 
visions: First,  every  slave  should  be  counted  as 
three-fifths  of  a  white  man  in  estimating  pop- 
ulation; second,  the  African  slave-trade  could 
continue  until  1808,  when  it  must  stop  forever; 
third,  runaway  slaves  must  be  arrested  in  any 
State  where  they  might  be  found  and  returned 
to  their  owners. 

The  Constitution. — The  scheme  of  government 
adopted  by  the  Convention  was  modelled  large- 
ly after  Anglo-Saxon  precedent  and  the  State 
constitutions.  It  was  drafted  by  Gouverneur 
Morris,  and  provided  for  three  coordinate 
branches — the  legislative,  the  executive,  and  the 
judicial. 

The  legislative  power  was  vested  in  Congress, 
consisting  of  a  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives. In  order  to  guard  the  interests  of  small 
States  against  the  encroachments  of  large  ones, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  insure  to  the  latter  the 
preeminence  which  their  superior  importance 
warranted,  senatorial  representation  was  made 
equal,  while  representation  in  the  Lower  House 
was  fixed  on  the  basis  of  population.  Senators 


124  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

were  to  be  chosen  by  the  State  legislatures  to 
serve  for  terms  of  six  years  and  to  represent 
their  States  as  units.  Members  of  the  House 
were  to  be  elected  by  popular  vote  for  terms  of 
two  years. 

Congress  was  empowered  to  make  laws  with- 
in the  limits  of  the  Constitution,  to  levy  taxes, 
coin  and  borrow  money,  raise  and  support 
armies,  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  coun- 
tries and  between  the  States,  and  in  brief  to  do 
the  necessary  business  of  a  national  govern- 
ment. 

The  authority  of  Congress  has  been  greatly 
extended  by  the  doctrine  of  "  implied  powers," 
which  is  that  when  the  Constitution  gave  certain 
express  powers  to  Congress  it  implied  all  inci- 
dental and  instrumental  powers  which  might  be 
necessary  to  carry  them  out.  This  interpreta- 
tion originated  with  Hamilton,  and  was  adopted 
by  the  Supreme  Court,  finding  its  strongest  judi- 
cial exponent  in  John  Marshall. 

Power  to  execute  the  laws  was  lodged  in  a 
President  to  be  elected  for  a  term  of  four  years 
by  electors  chosen  by  the  people  of  the  States. 
Bills  passed  by  Congress  must  be  submitted  to 
the  President  for  his  signature  before  they  could 
become  laws.  Should  the  President  veto  a  bill 


THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  125 

it  might  still  become  a  law,  provided  Congress 
could  pass  it  a  second  time  with  a  two-thirds 
affirmative  vote.  Should  the  bill  be  neither 
signed  nor  vetoed  it  would  become  law  at  the 
expiration  of  ten  days.  It  was  to  be  the  Presi- 
dent's duty  to  appoint  Federal  officers,  such  as 
ministers  to  foreign  countries,  judges  of  the  Fed- 
eral courts  and  postmasters,  and  to  make  foreign 
treaties. 

Associated  with  the  President  was  a  Vice- 
president,  whose  duty  was  to  preside  over  the 
Senate,  and  in  case  the  President  should  die, 
resign,  or  be  removed,  to  succeed  to  that  office. 

The  judicial  branch,  or  power  to  interpret 
the  Federal  laws,  was  represented  by  one  Su- 
preme Court  and  by  several  undefined  courts, 
which  Congress  was  given  authority  to  establish 
as  it  should  see  fit. 

Ratification  of  the  Constitution. — The  impor- 
tant question  now  was  whether  the  States  would 
accept  the  plan  of  government  which  the  Con- 
vention had  devised.  Fortunately  it  required 
the  consent  of  only  nine  States.  There  was  con- 
siderable opposition,  chiefly  in  New  York,  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  Virginia,  based  upon  the  fear 
that  the  powers  with  which  it  was  proposed  to 
endow  the  Federal  Government  would  be  used 


iz6  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

to  destroy  the  liberties  of  the  people  and  the  in- 
dependence of  the  States. 

Alexander  Hamilton,  James  Madison,  and 
John  Jay  wrote  a  series  of  able  essays  under 
the  title  of  "  The  Federalist,"  which  were 
printed  in  a  New  York  newspaper  and  scattered 
broadcast,  explaining  the  plan  and  showing  its 
advantages.  John  Dickinson  rendered  a  simi- 
lar service  through  a  number  of  public  letters 
over  the  signature  of  "  Fabius." 

One  by  one  the  States  swung  into  line,  Dela- 
ware and  Pennsylvania  leading,  until  the  con- 
sent of  the  necessary  nine  had  been  secured,  and 
by  June,  1788,  the  Constitution  was  an  assured 
thing.  New  York  came  in  eleventh  by  a  major- 
ity of  one  vote.  Rhode  Island  held  off  until 
1789,  and  North  Carolina  until  1790. 

New  York,  Rhode  Island,  and  Virginia  rati- 
fied the  Constitution  with  the  express  under- 
standing that  they  could  leave  the  Union  when- 
ever they  desired.  This  fact  had  an  impor- 
tant bearing  on  the  question  of  succession  in 
1860. 

Amendments. — In  order  to  remove  the  popu- 
lar objection  that  the  Constitution  did  not  as- 
sure the  liberties  of  the  people  and  the  rights 
of  the  States,  ten  amendments  were  added  in 


THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT     127 

1791  at  the  suggestion  of  Jefferson,  who  was 
not  present  at  the  deliberations  of  the  Conven- 
tion, having  succeeded  Benjamin  Franklin  as 
Minister  to  France.  They  guarantee  among 
other  things  freedom  of  religion,  of  speech,  and 
of  the  press,  trial  by  jury,  and  forbid  the  estab- 
lishment of  any  national  church. 

These  ten  amendments  are  called  the  "  Bill  of 
Rights."  They  are  restrictions  upon  the  power 
of  the  Federal  Government  only,  and  do  not 
apply  to  the  States.  The  Bill  of  Rights  was 
copied  from  similar  provisions  in  such  State  con- 
stitutions as  had  borrowed  them  from  the  fa- 
mous Bill  of  Rights  passed  by  Parliament  to 
protect  the  rights  of  Englishmen  in  1688. 

The  tenth  amendment  contains  the  rule  for 
determining  all  questions  of  respective  author- 
ity which  may  arise  between  a  State  and  the 
Federal  Government.  The  latter  can  exercise 
only  those  powers  which  the  Constitution  ex- 
pressly confers,  while  the  State  governments 
possess  all  the  powers  which  the  Constitution 
does  not  expressly  take  from  them. 

A  Monarchical  Type  of  Executive. — The  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  was  not  the  spon- 
taneous invention  of  its  celebrated  framers,  but 
the  ripened  fruit  of  centuries  of  political  devel- 


128  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

opment.  It  rests  upon  governmental  principles 
tried  and  proved  in  the  history  of  England  and 
by  the  experience  of  her  American  colonies  in 
the  days  of  British  sovereignty. 

It  may  be  observed,  however,  as  a  singular 
fact  —  in  view  of  the  American  antipathy  to 
monarchy  engendered  by  colonial  experiences 
with  George  III — that  the  President  should 
have  been  given  independent  executive  powers 
of  so  dictatorial  a  type — powers  far  greater 
than  those  of  the  King  of  England,  against 
whose  personal  misrule  the  patriots  rebelled. 
There  is  no  ruler  in  Europe,  with  the  ex- 
ceptions of  the  Czar,  the  Sultan,  and  the  Kaiser, 
to  whom  the  title  of  Imperator  may  be  so 
aptly  applied  as  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  He  cannot  legislate,  but  he  can  annul 
legislation  by  not  executing  the  laws,  while 
his  general  veto  power  constitutes  a  real  and 
vital  superiority.  The  right  of  appointment 
and  removal  is  in  itself  a  prerogative  of  magni- 
tude. The  President  is  commander-in-chief  of 
the  military  and  naval  forces  of  the  United 
States  with  every  protection  to  secrecy  of  intent 
and  action,  and  in  time  of  war  is  censor  of  the 
press.  In  short,  the  possibilities  for  the  exercise 
of  personal  tyranny  inherent  in  this  office  are 


THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  129 

immeasurable.  And  not  only  do  the  elastic 
powers  of  the  American  Executive  in  many  re- 
spects approximate  dictatorship,  but  they  are 
invading  the  legislative  sphere  of  Congress. 

The  First  Presidential  Election. — That  George 
Washington  would  be  the  first  President  of  the 
United  States  was  certain.  The  electors  met 
early  in  February,  1789,  and  cast  their  votes 
unanimously  for  Washington.  John  Adams, 
one  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  civil  leaders 
of  the  Revolution,  who  had  served  his  country 
as  Minister  to  France,  Holland,  and  Great  Brit- 
ain, was  chosen  Vice-president.  They  were  in- 
augurated on  April  3Oth  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  which  was  the  temporary  capital  of  the 
nation. 

Washington  was  socially  and  by  tempera- 
ment an  aristocrat,  fond  of  titles  and  ceremony, 
which  he  believed  properly  belonged  to  the  dig- 
nity of  office.  He  rode  in  a  coach  drawn  by  six 
white  horses  with  uniformed  footmen.  At  pub- 
lic receptions  he  wore  a  dress-sword  and  stood 
on  a  dais.  On  such  occasions  he  never  shook 
hands,  but  bowed  to  his  guests.  Washington 
and  Adams  were  reflected  in  1792. 

During  these  eight  years  some  notable  events 
occurred,  and  certain  tendencies  appeared  which 


i3o  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

gave  direction  to  political  development  for  many 
years. 

The  Cabinet. — One  of  the  first  acts  of  Con- 
gress was  to  create  four  executive  departments, 
which  have  since  been  increased  to  nine.  They 
were  the  departments  of  State,  Treasury,  War, 
and  the  office  of  Attorney-general. 

Washington  appointed  Thomas  Jefferson  Sec- 
retary of  State,  and  Alexander  Hamilton  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury;  Henry  Knox,  who  had 
been  chief  of  artillery  during  the  Revolution, 
was  made  Secretary  of  War,  and  Edmund  Ran- 
dolph Attorney-general. 

There  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  these  offi- 
cials met  together  until  1791.  Afterward  they 
assembled  occasionally,  but  not  at  regular  times, 
as  is  the  case  now.  The  term  "  Cabinet "  did 
not  come  into  vogue  until  1800. 

Financial  Reform. — The  most  imperative  duty 
of  the  new  Government  was  to  correct  the  finan- 
cial evils  inherited  from  the  Revolutionary 
period.  When  Hamilton  took  office  the  public 
debt  amounted  to  $54,000,000,  representing  the 
money  borrowed  from  France  and  Holland  and 
from  our  own  people  by  the  Continental  Con- 
gress during  the  Revolution  with  accrued  inter- 
est. The  State  governments  had  also  borrowed 


THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT     131 

large  amounts,  of  which  over  $21,000,000  still 
remained  unpaid. 

Hamilton  proposed  that  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment assume  the  total  debt  of  $75,000,000. 
There  was  strong  objection  to  having  the  Fed- 
eral Government  pay  the  State  debts,  partly 
because  some  States  had  already  discharged 
the  greater  portion  of  their  own  obligations 
and  did  not  want  to  be  burdened  with  the 
debts  of  the  rest,  but  chiefly  because  the  trans- 
action implied  the  sovereignty  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  which  the  State  Rights  men 
were  unwilling  to  admit.  The  bulk  of  opposi- 
tion came  from  the  South.  Finally,  through  a 
compact  between  Hamilton  and  Jefferson,  the 
Southern  States  agreed  to  support  Hamilton's 
plan  on  condition  that  the  national  capital  should 
be  located  in  Southern  territory.  To  satisfy 
Pennsylvania  the  capital  was  taken  away  from 
New  York  and  given  to  Philadelphia  for  ten 
years,  after  which  it  was  to  go  to  the  District 
of  Columbia.* 

Hamilton  persuaded  Congress  to  lay  a  light 

*  The  city  of  Washington  is  situated  on  a  tract  covering  a 
territory  of  a  little  less  than  ten  square  miles  which  Mary- 
land ceded  to  the  Federal  Government  for  the  site  of  the 
national  capital.  The  District  of  Columbia  is  governed  by 
Congress. 


I32  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

import  tax  on  tea  and  coffee  and  a  heavier  tax 
on  such  imported  articles  as  wines,  brandies, 
broadcloths,  and  velvets,  which  were  purchased 
only  by  the  well-to-do.  In  this  way  the  Gov- 
ernment could  get  sufficient  revenue  without 
overtaxing  the  people. 

Another  of  Hamilton's  financial  achievements 
was  the  establishment  of  a  United  States  Bank 
in  Philadelphia,  with  branches  in  New  York, 
Boston,  Baltimore,  and  Charleston.  The  bank 
was  chartered  for  twenty  years,  and  was  to  act 
as  financial  agent  for  the  Government. 

The  Rise  of  Political  Parties.— During  the 
public  discussions  of  the  Constitution  those  who 
had  favored  its  adoption  were  known  as  Feder- 
alists, while  those  who  had  opposed  it  because 
they  believed  in  the  supremacy  of  the  States 
were  called  Anti-Federalists. 

When  the  Constitution  was  ratified  the  Anti- 
Federalists  of  course  accepted  it,  but  retained 
their  principles  unchanged,  adopting  the  party 
name  of  Democratic-Republican,  and  continuing 
to  be  the  champions  of  the  States,  intent  upon 
seeing  that  the  Federal  Government  did  not 
overstep  the  limitations  which  the  Constitution 
had  placed  upon  it.  They  were  called  Demo- 
crats or  Republicans,  and  were  led  by  Thomas 


THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT     133 

Jefferson,  not  so  practical  a  statesman  as  Ham- 
ilton, but  sincere,  liberal,  learned,  and  patri- 
otic. Associated  with  Jefferson  in  party  lead- 
ership were  Aaron  Burr  and  George  Clinton, 
of  New  York,  and  Albert  Gallatin,  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

The  Democratic  -  Republican  Party  was 
strongest  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and 
the  South.  It  was  composed  of  the  agricult- 
ural class,  ambitious  young  men,  and  the  rest- 
less and  progressive  element  generally.  They 
believed  in  the  reign  of  the  common  people, 
hated  monarchy  and  class  rule,  and  thought  that 
the  Government  ought  to  help  France  against 
England  and  the  other  royal  and  aristocratic 
countries  which  were  trying  to  crush  the  efforts 
of  the  French  people  to  establish  a  republic 
in  place  of  the  monarchy  they  had  over- 
thrown. 

The  Democrats,  to  show  their  sympathy  for 
the  French,  wore  cockades,  the  official  emblem 
of  the  French  Revolutionists,  and  formed  po- 
litical clubs  to  which  they  gave  French  names. 
But  when  the  French  minister,  Genet,  came  over 
to  enlist  the  aid  of  the  United  States  in  a  war 
against  England  his  purpose  was  opposed  by 
Jefferson,  who  believed  with  Washington  that 


i34  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN*  HISTORY 

it  was  best  to  avoid  foreign  entanglements. 
Genet  behaved  so  discourteously  that  Washing- 
ton demanded  his  recall.  The  French  Revolu- 
tion was  rapidly  degenerating  into  anarchy,  and 
that  fact,  together  with  the  undiplomatic  con- 
duct of  Genet,  alienated  American  sympathy 
from  the  French  cause. 

It  may  at  first  sight  appear  remarkable  that  a 
party  whose  avowed  aim  was  to  level  social  in- 
equalities, should  have  taken  root  and  flourished 
in  a  section  of  the  country  which  has  from  colon- 
ial days  been  associated  with  the  aristocratic 
ideal  and  principle  of  government.  The 
strength  of  the  Jeffersonian  Party,  however,  did 
not  lie  with  the  wealthy  planters  who  occupied 
the  choice  lands  along  the  lower  river  courses 
and  the  coasts,  but  with  the  far  more  numerous 
small  farmers  of  the  interior.  Within  a  few 
years  the  Southern  aristocrats  were  impelled  by 
their  peculiar  interests  generally  to  affiliate  with 
the  Democratic  Party,  but  at  the  start  there 
were  more  Federalists  among  them  than  Demo- 
crats. 

The  Federalist  Party  was  led  by  Alexander 
Hamilton,  John  Adams,  John  Jay,  Gouver- 
neur  Morris,  and  James  Madison,  who  later  be- 
came a  Democrat.  Its  greatest  strength  was 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT  135 

in  New  England,  where  it  was  composed  of  the 
wealthy  and  cultured — the  lawyers,  ministers, 
doctors,  teachers,  and  merchants.  It  was  also 
liberally  represented  among  the  patricians  of 
the  South. 

The  Federalists  had  little  confidence  in  the 
virtue  and  intelligence  of  the  masses.  They  be- 
lieved that  the  National  Government  ought  to 
have  strong  powers,  and  that  only  citizens  who 
owned  property  and  were  educated  should  be 
allowed  to  vote. 

Trouble  with  the  Indians. — The  coming  of 
white  settlers  from  the  Eastern  States  into  the 
North-west  Territory  was  followed  by  Indian 
wars.  Two  armies  which  were  sent  against  the 
Indians  of  the  North-west  were  almost  anni- 
hilated. In  1793  Washington  intrusted  an  ex- 
pedition to  General  Anthony  Wayne,  who  had 
been  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  successful 
generals  of  the  Revolution,  and  next  to  Wash- 
ington the  most  popular  man  in  the  army.  Gen- 
eral Wayne  defeated  the  Indians  so  completely 
that  they  surrendered  all  claims  to  southern  and 
eastern  Ohio. 

The  American  People  in  1800. — The  census  of 
1800  announced  a  population  of  nearly  five 
and  a  half  millions.  Farmers  were  the  most 


136  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

numerous  class.  They  were  prosperous  and 
economically  independent,  producing  on  their 
farms  everything  required  for  their  own  sub- 
sistence, even  clothing,  which  was  made  from 
domestic  wool,  spun  and  cut  into  garments  by 
their  wives  and  daughters. 

Merchants  were  a  wealthy  and  influential 
portion  of  the  community.  Manufactures  had 
not  yet  developed  to  any  great  extent. 

Ship-building  was  a  prominent  industry  and 
commerce  was  rapidly  increasing.  All  Europe 
was  engaged  in  war,  and  the  carrying  trade, 
which  formerly  belonged  to  England,  France, 
and  Holland,  had  fallen  to  American  vessels. 

The  invention  of  the  cotton-gin  in  1794  by 
Eli  Whitney,  of  Connecticut,  had  made  cotton- 
raising  a  most  profitable  form  of  agriculture, 
and  the  South  was  growing  rich. 

The  interior  of  the  country  was  still  a  wilder- 
ness, but  in  swift  and  steady  process  of  reclama- 
tion by  the  hardy  pioneer.  The  rough  and 
ready  character  of  the  West  made  it  a  nursery 
of  democracy.  There  every  man  stood  upon 
his  own  merit,  or  fell  because  of  his  lack  of  it. 
The  new  Western  and  South-western  States  that 
were  admitted  to  the  Union  hedged  the  suffrage 
with  no  property  or  religious  tests. 


THE    FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT  137 

Horseback,  stage-coach,  and  sailing  packet 
were  still  the  only  modes  of  travel,  but  roads 
were  multiplying  and  canals  began  to  make 
their  appearance,  built  by  private  capital  or  by 
State  direction. 


CHAPTER   XI 

EARLY   ACHIEVEMENT    AND    NATIONAL 
EXPANSION 

WASHINGTON  could  have  been 
unanimously  reelected  for  a  third 
term,  and  was  not  in  principle  op- 
posed to  it,  but  being  weary  of  public  life,  in 
which  he  had  engaged  for  forty  years,  he  pre- 
ferred to  return  to  his  estate  and  resume  the  life 
of  a  Southern  planter.  His  few  remaining  years 
were  spent  in  tranquil  retirement  at  Mount  Ver- 
non,  where  he  died  in  1799,  mourned  by  his 
country  and  venerated  by  the  civilized  world. 

The  election  of  1796  resulted  in  the  choice 
of  John  Adams  for  President  and  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson for  Vice-president.  Adams  was  a  man 
of  highest  honor,  but  cold  in  manner,  austere, 
and  aristocratic,  hence  unpopular,  on  which  ac- 
count he  was  not  reelected. 

John  Adams  was  the  first  and  last  strictly 
Federalist  President.  Washington  had  never 
been  a  partisan.  Though  sympathizing  with 

138 


EARLY  ACHIEVEMENT  139 

the  general  aims  and  policies  of  the  Federalists, 
he  had  selected  his  advisers  from  both  parties. 

The  Adams  administration  is  memorable  for 
the  decline  of  the  Federalist  Party,  which  re- 
sulted to  some  extent  from  its  foreign  policy, 
though  principally  from  stubborn  resistance  to 
the  growing  spirit  of  the  age. 

The  Jay  Treaty. — In  1796  the  Federalist  Sen- 
ate had  ratified  a  treaty  with  Great  Britain 
which  was  not  advantageous  to  the  United 
States,  although  it  was  then  the  best  attainable, 
and  which  humiliated  the  national  pride.  The 
treaty  also  angered  France,  which  was  then  at 
war  with  Great  Britain,  because  it  gave  privi- 
leges to  the  latter  country  which  were  withheld 
from  France.  The  French  Government  retal- 
iated by  ordering  its  cruisers  to  seize  American 
vessels,  justifying  its  course  by  declaring  that 
the  United  States  was  assisting  Great  Britain, 
which  was  not  true.  The  American  Navy  made 
two  captures  of  French  war-ships.  For  a  time 
war  between  the  United  States  and  its  old  Revo- 
lutionary ally  was  imminent,  but  it  was  averted 
by  the  diplomacy  of  President  Adams  and  of 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,  First  Consul  of  France. 

The  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  1798.— In  the 
meantime  the  Federalist  Congress,  thinking  that 


HO  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

it  would  be  well  to  strengthen  the  Government 
in  case  of  war,  passed  the  Alien  Act,  empow- 
ering the  President  to  expel  from  the  country 
without  trial  any  foreigners  (meaning  French- 
men) whose  presence  he  might  regard  as  dan- 
gerous to  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  United 
States. 

The  Sedition  Act  made  it  a  crime  for  any  one 
to  speak  or  write  against  the  Government,  and 
was  directed  against  the  Democratic  Party, 
which  by  its  criticisms  had  exasperated  the  Fed- 
eralists. 

These  laws  aroused  great  opposition,  espe- 
cially in  the  South,  where  the  Democrats  were 
strong. 

The  Virginia  and  Kentucky  Resolutions. — The 
legislatures  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky  at  once 
passed  resolutions  declaring  the  Alien  and  Sedi- 
tion Acts  unconstitutional  and  calling  upon  the 
other  States  to  resist  them.  The  Virginia  reso- 
lutions were  written  by  James  Madison,  those 
of  Kentucky  by  Jefferson. 

These  resolutions  are  important  because  they 
contain  the  first  official  assertion  of  the  doctrine 
of  "nullification";  that  is,  the  doctrine  that  a 
State  may  declare  null  and  void  a  national  law 
of  which  it  disapproves. 


EARLY  ACHIEVEMENT  141 

The  rest  of  the  States  declined  to  follow  the 
lead  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  asserting  that 
only  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  had  the 
right  to  pass  upon  the  constitutionality  of  Fed- 
eral laws. 

The  Alien  and  Sedition  Acts  gave  the  Feder- 
alist Party  its  death-blow,  though  it  lingered  in 
a  struggling  condition  for  several  years,  and  its 
principles  continued  to  be  applied  by  Chief- 
justice  Marshall  in  the  judiciary  department. 

The  Election  of  Jefferson. — With  the  inaugu- 
ration of  Thomas  Jefferson  as  President  of  the 
United  States  in  1801  the  Democratic  Party 
came  into  full  control  of  national  affairs,  which 
it  was  to  hold  with  but  two  brief  interruptions 
for  sixty  years.  The  transfer  of  political  power 
from  the  aristocratic  to  the  popular  party  was 
accompanied  by  a  greater  simplicity  in  official 
habit  and  ceremony,  for  Jefferson,  although 
wealthy,  was  a  man  of  plain  tastes. 

The  Barbary  War. — The  United  States  enjoyed 
a  flourishing  trade  with  the  countries  bordering 
on  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  On  the  southern 
shore  lay  the  Barbary  States,  a  group  compris- 
ing Algiers,  Tunis,  Morocco,  and  Tripoli. 

The  people  of  the  Barbary  States  were  Mo- 
hammedans in  religion  and  pirates  by  occupation. 


i42  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

It  was  their  practice  to  lie  in  wait  in  their  har- 
bors for  foreign  merchantmen,  and  then  suddenly 
dart  out,  rob  the  vessels,  and  sell  the  crews  into 
slavery.  All  Europe  paid  tribute  to  insure  the 
protection  of  its  commerce.  Our  Government 
did  likewise  for  a  time,  but  soon  grew  tired  of 
it  and  determined  to  fight.  War  began  in 
1 80 1,  when  an  American  fleet  bombarded 
Tripoli.  Other  nations  followed  the  American 
example,  and  the  Barbary  terror  was  forever 
destroyed. 

This  achievement  greatly  increased  the  pres- 
tige of  the  United  States  abroad.  It  was  the 
first  triumph  of  our  national  navy,  and  it  notified 
Europe  that  there  was  a  new  and  vigorous  power 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Pope  Pius  VII  said: 
"  The  Americans  have  done  more  for  Christen- 
dom against  the  pirates  of  Africa  than  all  the 
powers  of  Europe  united." 

The  Louisiana  Purchase  and  the  Expedition  of 
Lewis  and  Clark. — President  Jefferson  and  other 
far-sighted  men  realized  that  the  political  and 
commercial  interests  of  the  United  States  de- 
manded full  American  control  of  the  Mississippi 
River  and  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  as  the  prod- 
uce of  nearly  half  the  country  must  reach  the 
market  by  the  Mississippi  route.  In  1800  Spain 


EARLY  ACHIEVEMENT  143 

ceded  to  France  the  territory  known  as  Louisi- 
ana.* 

Jefferson  at  once  planned  to  purchase  New 
Orleans.  Fortunately  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
needed  money  to  prosecute  his  mammoth  wars 
against  Europe.  He  was  willing  to  sell  not  only 
New  Orleans,  but  all  Louisiana,  because  of  the 
impossibility  of  defending  it  against  Great  Brit- 
ain, with  which  nation  he  was  about  to  go  to 
war.  He  also  knew  that  by  selling  Louisiana 
to  the  United  States  he  would  gain  the  good-will 
of  this  country,  and  at  the  same  time  raise  up  a 
powerful  future  rival  for  his  enemy,  Great  Brit- 
ain. The  north-western  boundary  of  this  im- 
mense tract  had  never  been  clearly  defined,  and 
Napoleon  believed  that  the  United  States 
would  sooner  or  later  come  into  collision  with 
Great  Britain,  whose  Canadian  possessions 
touched  the  Louisiana  territory.  This  is  pre- 
cisely what  happened,  although  not  so  soon 
as  Napoleon  expected.  The  two  nations  al- 

*  Louisiana  was  the  name  given  to  the  French  possessions 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  At  the  close  of  the  French  and 
Indian  War  it  was  ceded  to  Spain,  which  kept  it  until  1800, 
when  it  again  became  the  property  of  France.  It  comprised 
most  of  the  territory  now  included  in  the  States  of  Louisiana, 
Arkansas,  Missouri,  Iowa,  Minnesota,  North  and  South 
Dakota,  Montana,  Wyoming,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Colorado, 
Indian  Territory,  and  Oklahoma. 


H4  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

most  went  to  war  over  the  boundary  of  Oregon 
in  1846. 

The  United  States  paid  Napoleon  $15,000,- 
ooo,  and  in  1803  Louisiana  became  a  territory 
of  the  United  States.  This  transaction  is  one 
of  the  most  momentous  events  in  American  his- 
tory. It  doubled  our  national  area,  and  gave 
us  control  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  also  pre- 
vented those  disputes  or  wars  which  would  prob- 
ably have  arisen  had  Spain  or  France  continued 
to  own  neighboring  territory,  and  led  in  course 
of  time  to  the  extension  of  our  boundary  to  the 
Pacific. 

The  new  country  attracted  large  numbers  of 
immigrants  from  the  States.  The  invention  of 
the  steamboat  and  locomotive  a  few  years  later 
was  followed  by  a  great  increase  in  the  wealth 
and  commercial  importance  of  the  Far  West. 

In  the  spring  of  1804  President  Jefferson 
sent  out  Meriwether  Lewis  and  William  Clark 
to  explore  the  Louisiana  territory  and  the  coun- 
try beyond  as  far  as  the  Pacific  Ocean.  They 
were  gone  two  and  a  half  years.  In  consequence 
of  their  discoveries  the  United  States  laid  claim 
to  the  Oregon  country,  a  fine  territory  including 
the  present  States  of  Oregon,  Washington,  and 
Idaho,  but  it  was  many  years  before  the  Ameri- 


EARLY  ACHIEVEMENT  145 

can  claim  was  conceded  by  Great  Britain,  and 
then  only  after  a  compromise. 

The  Hamilton-Burr  Duel,  1804.— The  Vice- 
president  of  the  United  States  was  Aaron  Burr, 
one  of  the  most  gifted  men  in  American  his- 
tory, but  extremely  ambitious ;  a  man  who  never 
spoke  ill  of  his  most  embittered  and  inveterate 
foe ;  who  never  denied  the  malodorous  practices 
with  which  he  was  constantly  charged,  nor  retali- 
ated in  kind  against  his  accusers.  Burr  was  the 
shrewdest  politician  of  his  day,  and  was  hated 
and  feared  by  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  alike,  for 
neither  of  them  could  match  his  skill,  and  both 
distrusted  his  patriotism. 

In  the  election  of  1800  Jefferson  and  Burr 
had  polled  the  same  number  of  votes  for  Presi- 
dent. The  Constitution  provided  that  in  case 
of  a  tie  the  decision  should  lie  with  the  House 
of  Representatives.  The  House  was  made  up 
largely  of  Federalists,  whom  Hamilton  induced 
to  oppose  Burr,  with  the  result  that  Jefferson 
was  declared  President.* 

*  Under  the  original  method  of  election  there  was  no 
balloting  for  Vice-president.  The  electors  voted  for  two 
candidates  for  President,  and  the  one  who  received  next 
to  the  highest  number  of  votes  was  declared  Vice-presi- 
dent. This  method  had  worked  well  at  first,  but  its 
vital  defect  appeared  in  the  election  of  Adams  and 


146  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

In  1804  Burr  was  nominated  for  Governor  of 
New  York,  but  owing  to  the  hostile  influence 
of  Hamilton  he  was  defeated.  On  account  of 
this  and  other  grievances  Burr  challenged  Ham- 
ilton to  a  duel  and  killed  him.  He  was  in- 
dicted for  murder,  but  escaped  arrest  by  flight. 
The  man  whose  life  he  had  taken  was  one  of 
the  greatest  statesmen  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Guizot,  the  French  statesman  and  his- 
torian, says  of  Hamilton:  "  He  must  ever  be 
classed  among  the  men  who  have  best  under- 
stood the  vital  principles  and  elemental  condi- 
tions of  government;  there  is  not  in  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  an  element  of  order 
or  force  or  duration  which  he  did  not  power- 
fully contribute  to  secure." 

As  for  Aaron  Burr,  he  stands  a  discredited 
figure  in  the  galaxy  of  patriots.  No  man  in 
American  history  was  ever  more  bitterly  as- 
sailed, and  none  ever  preserved  in  the  face  of 

Jefferson.  As  they  were  members  of  hostile  parties  it 
necessarily  meant  a  lack  of  harmony  in  the  executive 
branch  of  the  Government,  and  a  political  change  in  the 
event  of  succession.  To  remove  these  disadvantages  as 
well  as  to  avoid  a  repetition  of  the  Jefferson-Burr  incident, 
a  Constitutional  amendment  was  passed  in  1804  adopting 
the  present  method.  The  electors  now  vote  for  President 
and  Vice-president  separately,  and  the  same  political  party 
gets  both  offices. 


EARLY  ACHIEVEMENT  147 

persecution  and  abuse  a  demeanor  more  serene 
or  a  self-control  more  perfect.  That  he  was  a 
model  of  moral  excellence  in  his  private  con- 
duct or  a  type  of  the  loftiest  statesmanship  is 
not  to  be  affirmed.  But  if  he  wore  not  with  virt- 
uous pride  the  "  white  flower  of  a  blameless 
life,"  he  was  at  least  a  brave,  defiant  soul,  who 
bore  with  philosophic  calm  the  life-long  storm 
of  scurrilous  attack  and  begged  no  quarter  of 
his  legion  foes. 

Fulton's  Steamboat. — The  civilized  world  was 
beginning  to  realize  the  possibilities  of  steam 
as  a  motive  power.  Several  attempts  had  been 
made  both  in  Europe  and  America  to  adapt  it 
to  navigation.  In  1786  John  Fitch  experi- 
mented successfully  with  a  steamboat  on  the 
Delaware,  and  James  Rumsey  in  the  same  year 
put  a  similar  craft  on  the  Potomac.  These  at- 
tempts, however,  failed  to  take  hold  of  the  pop- 
ular imagination;  it  remained  for  Robert  Ful- 
ton to  awaken  the  interest  of  the  general  public 
in  steam  navigation.  In  1807  Fulton  ran  the 
Clermont  from  New  York  to  Albany  against  a 
heavy  current,  attaining  a  speed  of  four  miles 
an  hour. 

The  invention  of  the  steamboat  was  one  of 
the  great  achievements  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 


148  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

tury.  It  became  a  powerful  factor  in  opening  up 
the  West,  distributing  population  and  increas- 
ing commerce  by  making  transportation  both 
easier  and  cheaper. 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE  WAR  OF  1812 

DURING  Jefferson's  second  administra- 
tion the  United  States  suffered  great 
annoyance  from  England  and  France, 
which  were  then  at  war  with  each  other.  In 
order  to  destroy  England's  commerce  Na- 
poleon proclaimed  a  blockade  of  British  ports. 
Great  Britain  retaliated  with  the  Orders  in 
Council,  forbidding  all  trade  not  only  with 
France,  but  with  those  countries  which  were 
under  French  control.  As  every  country  in  con- 
tinental Europe  except  Russia  was  ruled  by 
France  the  Orders  in  Council  practically  closed 
commerce  between  the  United  States  and  Eu- 
rope. This  was  a  heavy  blow  to  American  in- 
terests, for  the  United  States  had  acquired  the 
greater  part  of  the  carrying  trade  of  the  civ- 
ilized world. 

England  needed  more  sailors  to  man  her 
ships  and  to  enforce  her  blockades.  In  order 
to  get  them  she  resorted  to  "  impressment." 

149 


150  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW    OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Her  courts  declared,  "  once  an  Englishman  al- 
ways an  Englishman/'  and  they  refused  to  rec- 
ognize American  naturalization  laws  or  to  admit 
that  the  United  States  could  by  any  process  make 
an  American  citizen  out  of  a  native-born  Briton. 
The  American  Navy  and  merchant  marine  con- 
tained many  Englishmen;  some  had  deserted 
from  the  British  Navy,  and  others  had  been  nat- 
uralized under  United  States  laws.  The  officers 
of  Great  Britain  boarded  American  vessels, 
seized  these  men  and  "  impressed "  them  into 
the  British  service.  Very  often,  since  it  was  not 
always  easy  to  distinguish  between  an  American 
and  an  Englishman,  they  took  American  sailors 
and  made  them  fight  in  British  ships. 

The  Embargo. — In  June,  1807,  the  British 
frigate  Leopard  stopped  the  American  frigate 
Chesapeake  and  demanded  the  delivery  of  al- 
leged deserters.  The  captain  of  the  Chesapeake 
refused  to  give  them  up,  whereupon  the  Leopard 
opened  fire.  The  Chesapeake  being  quite  unpre- 
pared for  action  was  compelled  to  surrender. 

This  outrage  upon  an  armed  vessel  of  the 
United  States  should  have  been  followed  by  an 
immediate  declaration  of  hostilities,  but  Jeffer- 
son was  a  man  of  peace,  and  hoped  to  bring 
Great  Britain  to  terms  by  breaking  off  trade  re- 


THE  WAR  OF  1812  151 

lations  instead  of  resorting  to  force.  When 
Congress  met  in  December,  1807,  it  passed  an 
embargo  act  forbidding  American  vessels  to  sail 
to  European  ports  and  European  vessels  to  land 
cargoes  in  American  ports.  The  object  was  to 
injure  French,  and  especially  British,  trade.  But 
Europe  did  not  need  American  trade  nearly  so 
much  as  the  United  States  needed  the  trade  of 
Europe. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  Embargo  was 
to  produce  general  discontent  at  home.  Prices 
dropped  because  there  was  no  market  for  goods. 
American  vessels  rotted  at  the  wharves,  sailors 
lost  employment,  farmers  could  not  sell  their 
produce,  merchants  became  bankrupt,  and  grass 
grew  in  the  streets  of  the  seaport  towns. 

But  the  Embargo  had  one  beneficial  result. 
The  restrictions  imposed  upon  commerce  forced 
the  American  people  to  make  for  themselves 
many  articles  for  which  they  had  hitherto  de- 
pended upon  Europe.  In  this  way  mills  and 
factories  sprang  up  in  New  England. 

The  Presidency  of  James  Madison,  1809-17. — 
Like  Washington,  Jefferson  could  have  had  a 
third  term,  but  declined,  although  for  a  differ- 
ent reason ;  because  he  believed  that  for  one  man 
to  serve  longer  than  eight  years  would  set  a 


152  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

precedent  which  might  have  a  monarchical 
tendency. 

Notwithstanding  the  unpopularity  of  the  Em- 
bargo, which  had  been  passed  by  a  Democratic 
Congress,  that  party  carried  the  election  of 
1808,  and  James  Madison  was  chosen  Presi- 
dent. He  had  been  a  Federalist,  and  is  some- 
times called  the  "  Father  of  the  Constitution," 
because  of  his  prominent  part  in  framing  that 
instrument  and  in  securing  its  adoption,  but 
later  he  joined  the  party  of  Jefferson. 

In  the  spring  of  1809  the  Embargo  was  re- 
pealed, and  the  Non-Intercourse  Act  passed  in 
its  stead,  which  permitted  trade  with  the  rest  of 
Europe,  but  forbade  it  with  Great  Britain. 

Three  years  passed,  during  which  Great  Brit- 
ain continued  to  seize  American  vessels  and  im- 
press American  sailors.  Since  1803  more  than 
nine  hundred  American  vessels  had  been  seized 
and  several  thousand  American  seamen  forced 
into  the  British  naval  service.  The  Democratic- 
Republican  Party  demanded  war.  Led  by  such 
men  as  Albert  Gallatin,  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  it  began  to  see  the 
necessity  for  a  stronger  national  Government 
than  it  had  at  first  approved. 

The  Battle  of  Tippecanoe.— While    the    United 


THE  WAR  OF   1812  153 

States  was  on  the  verge  of  war  with  England  an- 
other decisive  victory  was  won  over  the  Indians 
in  the  West. 

The  white  settlers  were  steadily  pushing  the 
red  men  toward  the  setting  sun.  In  1 809  Gen- 
eral William  Henry  Harrison,  Governor  of  the 
Territory  of  Indiana,  purchased  land  from  the 
Indians  for  the  United  States  Government. 
Two  chiefs,  Tecumseh  and  his  brother  the 
"  Prophet,"  believed  the  purchase  had  been  un- 
fairly made  and  organized  the  tribes  for  a  con- 
certed effort  to  expel  the  whites. 

Tecumseh,  although  a  barbarian,  was  a  re- 
former and  a  man  of  high  principle.  He  wanted 
to  suppress  the  sale  of  the  white  man's  liquor, 
which  was  making  a  race  of  drunkards  out  of 
his  people. 

In  the  autumn  of  1811  General  Harrison 
marched  into  the  Indian  country.  Tecumseh 
was  in  the  South,  working  up  an  alliance  with 
the  Creek  Indians  of  Alabama.  The  Prophet 
attempted  to  surprise  the  Americans  by  a  sudden 
attack,  but  Harrison  was  on  his  guard,  and  the 
Indians  were  defeated  with  great  loss  at  the 
battle  of  Tippecanoe. 

War  Declared. — On  June  18,  1812,  Congress 
declared  war  against  Great  Britain.  In  his  mes- 


154  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

sage  to  Congress  the  President  specified  the  fol- 
lowing principal  causes  of  grievance:  First,  the 
seizure  of  American  vessels  and  the  impress- 
ment of  American  citizens  into  the  British  Navy; 
second,  the  destructive  effect  upon  American 
commerce  of  British  blockades;  third,  the  com- 
mon belief  that  the  British  fur-traders  and  gar- 
risons on  the  Canadian  frontier  had  incited  the 
recent  Indian  outbreak  under  Tecumseh — which 
is  now  known  to  be  an  error. 

The  War  of  1812  is  often  called  the  Second 
War  for  Independence.  The  Revolution  had 
made  us  free  on  land,  the  War  of  1812  was  to 
make  us  free  on  the  ocean;  the  Revolution  had 
given  us  political  independence,  the  War  of  1812 
was  to  give  us  commercial  independence. 

Military  Disaster. — The  first  military  event 
of  the  war  proved  disastrous  to  American  arms. 
General  Hull  was  commander  of  the  forces  in 
the  West.  He  started  to  invade  Canada,  but 
becoming  alarmed  turned  back  to  Detroit. 
Soon  a  British  force  appeared,  and  without 
even  attempting  a  defence  General  Hull  sur- 
rendered, thus  permitting  all  Michigan  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  He  was  tried  by 
a  court-martial  for  cowardice  and  sentenced  to 
be  shot,  but  the  President  interfered  to  save  his 


THE  WAR  OF   1812  155 

life  on  account  of  his  age  and  his  honorable  rec- 
ord in  the  Revolution. 

Naval  Victories. — If  failure  followed  the 
commencement  of  hostilities  on  land,  on  sea 
the  war  opened  with  brilliant  success.  The 
American  Navy  numbered  but  twenty  ships 
and  a  few  gun-boats,  while  the  British  Navy 
comprised  a  thousand  vessels.  On  August  19, 
1812,  a  few  days  after  General  Hull  sur- 
rendered Detroit,  his  nephew,  Captain  Isaac 
Hull,  commanding  the  Constitution,  fought  the 
British  frigate  Guerriere,  and  captured  her  in  less 
than  thirty  minutes.  It  was  the  first  victory  of 
the  war,  and  the  people  gave  the  Constitution 
the  affectionate  name  of  "  Old  Ironsides." 
In  the  same  year  the  Americans  won  three  other 
memorable  sea  -  victories.  The  Constitution 
added  the  Java  to  her  prize  record,  the  Wasp 
captured  the  Frolic,  and  the  United  States  took 
the  Macedonian.  Before  the  war  ended  the 
American  Navy  had  captured  twenty-five  hun- 
dred British  prizes. 

The  reason  for  this  astonishing  success  against 
the  greatest  navy  in  the  world  is  to  be  found  in 
the  superiority  of  American  gunners  and  sailors, 
which  more  than  compensated  for  the  lack  of 
ships. 


156  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

A  large  part  of  the  northern  frontier  was 
occupied  by  the  Great  Lakes,  of  which  it  was 
highly  desirable  to  get  control.  Captain  Oliver 
Hazard  Perry  built  a  fleet  on  Lake  Erie  to 
operate  against  the  British.  On  the  morning  of 
September  13,  1813,  he  saw  the  British  ships 
approaching.  Captain  Perry  advanced  to  meet 
them,  and  in  less  than  two  hours,  after  one  of 
the  hardest  fought  naval  battles  in  history, 
gained  a  complete  victory.  He  then  sent  to 
General  Harrison,  who  had  succeeded  General 
Hull  in  the  command  of  the  army  of  the  West, 
this  famous  despatch:  "  We  have  met  the  enemy 
and  they  are  ours." 

A  similar  victory  was  gained  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  September  n,  1814,  when  a  small  Amer- 
ican squadron  under  Captain  McDonough  pre- 
vented the  invasion  of  New  York  State  by  a 
British  army  of  twelve  thousand,  backed  by  a 
large  fleet. 

The  War  of  1812  produced  some  able  gen- 
erals as  well  as  sea-fighters.  In  Canada  Gen- 
erals Jacob  Brown  and  Winfield  Scott  won  the 
battles  of  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane,  brilliant 
achievements,  although  resulting  in  no  perma- 
nent military  advantage. 

The  Enemy  in  Washington. — Late  in  the  sum- 


THE  WAR  OF  1812  157 

mer  of  1814  a  British  naval  and  military  force 
under  Admiral  Cockburn  and  General  Ross 
sailed  up  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  landed  in  Mary- 
land, and  marched  to  Washington.  They 
burned  the  Capitol,  the  White  House,  and  some 
other  Government  buildings,  destroying  both 
public  and  private  property.  On  their  return 
the  British  attacked  Baltimore,  but  failing  to 
take  the  city,  which  was  valiantly  defended  by 
citizens  and  militia,  they  embarked  on  their 
transports  and  sailed  away  to  Halifax. 

It  was  during  the  bombardment  of  Fort  Mc- 
Henry  that  "  The  Star-spangled  Banner  "  was 
written  by  Francis  Scott  Key,  who  was  detained 
under  a  flag  of  truce  aboard  a  British  ship. 

Jackson  and  the  Indians. — The  land  fighting 
was  not  confined  to  the  North.  Tecumseh  had 
persuaded  the  Creek  Indians  of  Alabama  to 
join  the  British  against  the  Americans.  At 
Fort  Mims  they  massacred  seven  hundred 
Americans — soldiers,  women,  and  children. 
General  Andrew  Jackson,  commanding  the 
Tennessee  militia,  took  a  prompt  revenge  upon 
the  Indians  in  a  series  of  brilliant  engagements. 
He  proved  to  be  such  a  hard  and  tireless  fighter 
that  his  soldiers  gave  him  the  nickname  of  "  Old 
Hickory,"  by  which  he  became  known  all  over 


158  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  country.  In  1814  Jackson  was  placed  in 
command  of  the  entire  southern  department  of 
the  army. 

New  Orleans. — On  January  8,  1815,  the  Brit- 
ish Army,  outnumbering  their  foemen  two  to  one 
and  composed  of  veterans  who  had  fought 
against  Napoleon,  made  a  grand  assault  upon 
New  Orleans. 

The  defenders  of  the  city  were  commanded 
by  General  Andrew  Jackson.  They  consisted 
of  militiamen,  negroes,  and  boys,  intrenched  be- 
hind barricades  of  mud  and  cotton-bales.  The 
British  moved  to  the  attack  early  in  the  morn- 
ing. From  the  top  of  the  crude  parapet  twelve 
cannon  poured  their  murderous  fire  into  the  ad- 
vancing enemy.  One  cannon,  loaded  to  the 
muzzle  with  musket-balls,  brought  down  two 
hundred  British  soldiers  at  its  first  discharge. 
In  twenty-five  minutes  it  was  all  over. 

The  battle  of  New  Orleans,  though  the  most 
celebrated  American  victory  of  the  war,  was 
wholly  unnecessary  because  a  treaty  of  peace 
had  been  signed  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  two  weeks  before  in  the  city  of 
Ghent,  Belgium.  Owing  to  the  slow  mode  of 
transmitting  news  this  fact  was  unknown  to 
either  army. 


THE  WAR  OF  1812  159 

The  Hartford  Convention. — The  Federalists 
were  violently  opposed  to  the  war  with  Eng- 
land. The  New  England  members  of  the 
party,  anxious  to  embarrass  the  Democratic  ad- 
ministration and  to  force  peace,  met  in  conven- 
tion at  Hartford,  Conn.,  in  December,  1814. 
After  a  secret  session  of  three  weeks  the  conven- 
tion issued  a  report,  which  was  a  reproduction 
of  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions,  and 
threatened  the  withdrawal  of  the  New  England 
States  from  the  Union  unless  peace  were  speed- 
ily made.  Before  the  purpose  of  the  convention 
could  be  carried  out  peace  was  declared. 

The  country  never  forgave  the  unpatriotic 
conduct  of  the  New  England  Federalists,  who 
sought  to  cripple  the  national  Government  in 
the  hour  of  its  distress  to  force  a  partisan  ad- 
vantage. The  Hartford  convention  proved  a 
finishing  blow  to  the  Federalist  Party.  Years 
afterward  the  memory  of  this  episode  was  re- 
vived by  the  South  to  furnish  a  Northern  prece- 
dent for  the  doctrine  of  secession. 

Results  of  the  War. — Not  a  word  did  the 
treaty  contain  regarding  impressment  or  the 
other  grievances  on  account  of  which  the  United 
States  had  gone  to  war.  But  if  the  original 
causes  of  dispute  were  left  unsettled,  the  United 


160  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

States  had  gained  much.  Great  Britain  never 
again  impressed  American  sailors.  The  Amer- 
ican victories  on  sea  and  land  raised  the  United 
States  to  the  rank  of  a  first-class  power.  Euro- 
pean respect  for  this  country  dates  from  the  War 
of  1812. 

More  than  all  this  the  war  awakened  a  con- 
sciousness of  nationality  which  imparted  a 
moral  strength  to  the  Union  as  nothing  else 
could  have  done. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE    GROWTH    OF    NATIONALITY    AND    THE 
FURTHER    DEVELOPMENT   OF    POLITI- 
CAL PARTIES 

THE  years  immediately  following  the 
War  of  1812  were  not  characterized 
by  startling  events.  James  Monroe, 
of  Virginia,  became  President  in  1816  and 
served  two  terms.  He  was  the  last  President  to 
wear  the  cocked  hat  and  to  dress  in  the  fashion 
of  the  Revolution.  During  his  administration 
the  country  entered  upon  a  period  of  great  pros- 
perity. Commerce  flourished,  manufactures 
sprang  up  in  the  North,  and  the  rich  agricultural 
lands  of  the  West  came  under  cultivation.  Then 
began  that  mighty  stream  of  foreign  immigra- 
tion that  has  poured  steadily  into  this  land  ever 
since,  drawn  by  the  superior  opportunities 
offered  in  a  new  and  free  country. 

The  feeling  of  nationality  that  had  been 
awakened  by  the  war  was  strengthened  by  the 
growth  of  commerce,  and  by  the  canals,  the 
steamboat  lines,  and  a  little  later  the  railroads, 

161 


162  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

which  drew  the  different  sections  nearer  together 
and  facilitated  the  settlement  of  the  great  West. 

The  Purchase  of  Florida. — Ever  since  Florida 
became  the  property  of  Spain  by  the  treaty  of 
1783  it  had  been  a  constant  source  of  annoy- 
ance to  the  United  States.  The  Spanish  officials 
were  indifferent  to  their  duties,  and  made  no 
serious  effort  to  enforce  order.  They  violated 
international  law  by  receiving  fugitives  from 
American  justice,  smugglers,  hostile  Indians,  and 
other  disorderly  persons  who  took  an  unfair 
advantage  of  the  fact  that  Florida  was  Spanish 
territory  to  use  it  as  a  base  for  their  lawless 
operations  against  the  people  of  Alabama  and 
Georgia,  and  as  a  means  to  escape  from  punish- 
ment. 

The  United  States,  thinking  it  desirable  to 
bring  this  troublesome  region  under  its  con- 
trol, and  also  wishing  to  diminish  as  far  as  pos- 
sible Spanish  sovereignty  in  the  New  World, 
purchased  Florida  in  1 8 19.  It  was  given  a  terri- 
torial government,  under  which  it  remained 
until  1845,  when  it  became  a  State. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine. — During  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  in  which  all  Europe  was  for  many  years 
engaged,  the  Spanish  colonies  in  South  America, 
inspired  by  the  earlier  example  of  the  United 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONALITY        163 

States,  took  advantage  of  the  mother-country's 
weakness  to  declare  their  independence  and  to 
set  up  republican  forms  of  government.  At  the 
same  time  Russia,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  France 
formed  the  "  Holy  Alliance,"  the  object  of 
which  was  to  prevent  the  spread  of  republican 
ideas,  then  making  great  headway  in  Europe, 
and  to  assist  Spain  to  recover  possession  of  the 
South  American  countries  which  had  revolted. 
Great  Britain  was  invited  to  join  but  refused. 
The  British  Government  then  proposed  to  the 
United  States  that  the  two  nations  unite  to 
prevent  the  Holy  Alliance  from  interfering  in 
South  America.  The  cooperation  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, with  her  superior  navy,  enabled  the  United 
States  to  take  a  stand  that  would  have  been  im- 
possible without  British  support. 

President  Monroe,  in  his  message  to  Congress 
(December,  1823),  announced  the  following 
principles :  That  the  United  States  would  not  in- 
terfere with  European  rights  on  this  hemisphere 
as  they  existed  prior  to  that  date;  but  that  in 
future  no  European  nation  would  be  allowed  to 
colonize  any  portion  of  North  or  South  Amer- 
ica, or  to  extend  hither  their  systems  of  monarchy, 
or  to  oppress  the  independent  nations  of  either 
continent;  and  that  the  violation  of  any  of  these 


164  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

rules  would  be  considered  an  act  of  hostility  to 
the  United  States. 

Although  named  for  President  Monroe,  these 
principles  had  been  previously  and  strongly  ad- 
vocated by  Jefferson,  Madison,  Henry  Clay,  and 
John  Quincy  Adams. 

The  popular  approval  which  greeted  this  mes- 
sage offered  convincing  proof  of  the  growing 
spirit  of  nationality. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine  has  been  greatly 
expanded  in  the  course  of  years.  Although  the 
causes  which  produced  it  have  long  since  disap- 
peared, it  is  to-day  more  than  ever  the  primary 
and  determined  rule  in  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
United  States. 

That  American  antipathy  to  European  colo- 
nization of  South  America  is  at  the  present  time 
based  upon  fear  of  contamination  to  republican 
institutions  from  monarchical  influence  is  pre- 
posterous. France  is  republican,  and  England 
is  politically  a  democracy,  but  the  intrusion  of 
either  nation  would  no  more  be  tolerated  than 
that  of  imperial  Germany. 

Nor  can  the  idea  be  seriously  entertained  that 
it  is  the  benevolent  intention  of  the  United  States 
to  hold  South  America  in  trust  until  the  present 
Latinized  agglomeration  of  discordant,  bellig- 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONALITY        165 

erent  and  venal  governments  reach  such  a  stage 
of  civic  intelligence  and  strength  that  they  can 
protect  themselves  from  European  aggressions. 

South  America  must  some  day  be  predomi- 
nantly Teutonic,  for  the  Latin  race,  its  present 
possessor,  is  doomed.  The  great  Teutonic  na- 
tions are  England,  Germany,  and  the  United 
States.  Germany,  with  its  excess  of  population, 
would  long  ago  have  sought  a  "  sphere  of  influ- 
ence "  by  political  colonization  and  military  es- 
tablishment but  for  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  The 
United  States,  not  yet  ready  for  so  tremendous 
a  step  as  the  confiscation  of  a  continent,  is  fully 
determined  that  its  rivals  shall  not  acquire  a 
foothold  within  an  area  which  for  nearly  a  cen- 
tury it  has  been  accustomed  to  regard  as  its  own 
preserve.  This  is  the  probable  intent  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  as  evidenced  in  the  acts  and 
policies  of  state. 

New  Political  Divisions. — The  period  covered 
by  the  two  administrations  of  Monroe  is  fre- 
quently spoken  of  as  the  "  Era  of  Good  Feel- 
ing," because  there  was  but  one  political  party, 
the  Democratic-Republican  Party  of  Jefferson, 
or  Democratic  Party,  as  it  was  commonly  called. 
The  Alien  and  Sedition  laws,  the  unsympathetic 
and  distrustful  attitude  of  the  Federalists  toward 


166  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

popular  government,  and  the  unsavory  episode 
of  the  Hartford  convention  proved  the  ruin  of 
the  Federalist  Party.  After  the  election  of  1 8 1 6 
it  completely  disappeared  as  an  organization, 
although  other  parties  have  descended  from  it 
which  have  kept  alive  in  modified  form  the  best 
of  its  principles. 

But  although  there  was  only  one  political 
party  in  existence  the  period  was  anything  but 
an  era  of  good  feeling  in  politics.  There  were 
many  differences  of  opinion  on  political  ques- 
tions, many  bitter  enmities  between  public  men, 
and  these  factors  were  leading  toward  the  for- 
mation of  a  new  party. 

The  Democratic  Party,  following  the  ideas  of 
Jefferson,  believed  in  as  little  government  and 
as  few  laws  as  possible,  consistent  with  the  pub- 
lic welfare ;  whatever  government  was  necessary 
it  believed  should  be  exercised  by  the  individual 
States  rather  than  by  Federal  authority,  since  the 
States  were  nearer  to  the  people  and  centralized 
power  was  apt  to  beget  tyranny.  It  favored  a 
strict  construction  of  the  Constitution  as  the 
surest  way  to  curb  the  aggressive  tendencies  of 
the  Federal  Government  and  to  guard  the  rights 
of  the  States  and  the  liberties  of  the  people. 

The  acts  of  the  Democratic  Party,  though 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONALITY        167 

not  always  consistent  with  its  professions,  have 
been  on  the  whole  in  line  with  these  principles. 

But  the  Democratic  Party  contained  many 
men  who  believed  that  in  order  to  reach  the  full- 
est national  development  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment should  be  given  a  larger  measure  of  power; 
that  there  were  some  things  that  could  be  better 
handled  by  Congress  than  by  State  legislatures; 
in  short,  they  believed  in  the  old  Federalist  prin- 
ciple of  a  strong  central  government,  which, 
according  to  their  view,  was  not  necessarily  dan- 
gerous either  to  State  rights  or  individual  liber- 
ties. 

The  creed  of  these  Democrats  contained 
two  prominent  features :  internal  improvements, 
such  as  building  roads  and  canals,  at  national 
expense;  and  a  protective  tariff,  that  is,  a  tax 
on  certain  goods  of  foreign  manufacture  great 
enough  to  keep  them  out  of  the  country,  so  that 
the  people  would  be  compelled  to  buy  only 
American  goods. 

The  principle  of  internal  improvements  was 
in  harmony  with  the  interests  of  the  farmers 
of  the  West,  who  desired  roads  and  canals  in 
order  to  connect  them  with  the  East  and  to  les- 
sen the  expense  of  transporting  their  agricult- 
ural products  to  Eastern  markets.  The  prin- 


168  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

ciple  of  protection  was  heartily  approved  by 
the  manufacturers  of  New  England,  who  were 
striving  to  establish  great  and  permanent  indus- 
tries, and  would  in  this  manner  escape  foreign 
competition. 

This  faction  of  the  Democratic  Party  was 
led  by  Henry  Clay  and  John  Quincy  Adams. 
It  absorbed  the  Federalist  remnants  and  grew 
rapidly,  assuming  the  distinctive  name  of  the 
National  Republican  Party.  In  1824  the  Na- 
tional Republicans  elected  John  Quincy  Adams 
President.* 

The  administration  of  Adams,  like  that  of  his 
predecessor,  Monroe,  was  uneventful.  But  be- 
neath the  quiet  surf  ace  powerful  movements  were 
taking  definite  direction.  It  was  during  the  pres- 
idential terms  of  Monroe  and  Adams  that  the 
questions  of  slavery  and  the  tariff,  two  of  the 
greatest  issues  of  the  nineteenth  century  in 

*  The  election  of  1824  was  the  second  in  our  history  to  be 
decided  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  as  none  of  the  can- 
didates had  a  majority  of  the  electoral  votes. 

John  Quincy  Adams  was  the  son  of  John  Adams  and  had 
formerly  been  a  Federalist.  Like  his  father,  he  was  a  man  of 
very  great  ability,  unselfish,  incorruptible,  and  devoted  to  the 
public  welfare.  Like  the  elder  Adams,  too,  he  was  consid- 
ered cold  and  aristocratic  and  largely  for  this  reason  failed 
to  be  reflected.  After  his  term  expired  he  served  with  dis- 
tinction for  seventeen  years  as  a  member  of  Congress  from 
Massachusetts. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONALITY        169 

American  politics,  first  came  squarely  before  the 
people. 

The  Slavery  Question  and  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise.—  It  will  be  remembered  that  slavery 
formerly  existed  in  the  North  as  well  as  in  the 
South,  although  never  to  so  great  an  extent. 
The  fact  that  it  was  not  suited  to  Northern 
manufactures  made  it  unprofitable,  and  led  to 
its  disappearance.  Even  in  agriculture  it  had 
never  paid,  for  the  small  farms  of  the  North 
were  very  different  from  the  plantation  system 
of  the  South.  Only  in  Pennsylvania,  by  the 
efforts  of  the  Quakers  and  some  of  the  German 
religious  bodies,  was  slavery  abolished  on  strictly 
moral  grounds. 

The  Ordinance  of  1787  had  forever  excluded 
slavery  from  the  States  which  might  in  the  future 
be  carved  out  of  the  vast  territory  that  stretched 
from  the  Ohio  River  to  the  Mississippi  and 
northward  to  the  Great  Lakes. 

The  Constitution,  while  guaranteeing  protec- 
tion to  slavery  as  it  existed,  forbade  the  impor- 
tation of  slaves  after  1808. 

Many  Southern  people  and  some  of  the  great- 
est Southern  statesmen,  including  Washington, 
Jefferson,  and  Madison,  had  desired  the  end  of 
slavery. 


170  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

These  facts  indicated  that  slavery  might  ulti- 
mately die,  or  at  least  that  it  would  never  in- 
crease to  a  great  extent  or  spread  beyond  the 
region  where  it  then  existed.  But  this  expecta- 
tion was  destroyed  by  the  invention  of  the  cot- 
ton-gin, which,  by  enabling  one  slave  to  do  the 
work  that  previously  required  three  hundred, 
increased  the  value  of  every  negro,  and  made 
cotton  the  chief  staple  of  the  South.  The  re- 
sult was  that  slavery  became  more  firmly  fixed 
than  ever  as  the  basis  of  the  industrial  life  of  the 
South. 

Now,  had  slavery  been  confined  to  the  lim- 
its within  which  it  then  existed  all  might  have 
been  well.  It  was  the  question  of  its  extension 
into  new  territory  that  created  trouble.  The 
South  realized  that  unless  its  ranks  were  re- 
cruited by  the  addition  of  new  slave  States  it 
would  soon  be  outnumbered  in  Congress  by  the 
North,  whose  population  was  increasing  at  a 
rapid  rate.  The  only  way  for  the  South  to  re- 
tain its  political  power  was  by  the  admission  of 
new  States  from  the  South-west  and  from  that 
part  of  the  upper  West  which  lay  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  Thus  it  could 
balance  its  losses  in  the  House,  where  represen- 
tation was  based  on  population,  by  its  gains  in 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONALITY         171 

the  Senate,  where  representation  was  based  on 
territory. 

The  first  skirmish  in  the  conflict  between  free- 
dom and  slavery  occurred  when  Missouri  ap- 
plied for  admission  to  the  Union.  Hitherto 
new  States  had  been  admitted  in  pairs,  one  slave 
State  for  one  free  State.  Thus  Kentucky  and 
Vermont  came  in  together;  Tennessee  and  Ohio, 
Louisiana  and  Indiana,  Mississippi  and  Illinois 
offset  each  other. 

In  1820  Maine,  which  had  been  a  part  of 
Massachusetts  in  colonial  days,  was  admitted 
as  a  separate  State.  The  North  wanted  Mis- 
souri to  come  in  as  a  free  State,  the  South  as  a 
slave  State.  Henry  Clay,  then  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Kentucky,  came  forward  with  a 
compromise.  He  proposed  to  admit  Missouri 
as  a  slave  State,  but  to  exclude  slavery  forever 
from  all  that  portion  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
which  lay  to  the  north  of  the  southern  bound- 
ary of  Missouri. 

Clay's  compromise  became  law  in  1821,  and 
undoubtedly  saved  the  Union.  Had  Missouri 
been  refused  admission  as  a  slave  State  the 
South  would  probably  have  seceded.  There  was 
neither  sufficient  military  power  nor  a  strong 
enough  national  sentiment  in  the  North  at  that 


i;z  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

time  to  have  prevented  it.  It  is  not  likely  that 
the  Northern  people  would  have  rallied  to  the 
defence  of  the  Union  then,  as  they  did  forty 
years  later.  The  aged  but  still  clear-visioned 
Jefferson,  living  in  peaceful  retirement  at  Mon- 
ticello,  heard  the  sharp,  discordant  note  that 
issued  from  the  halls  of  Congress  and  knew  that 
the  Missouri  Compromise  portended  a  coming 
struggle.  It  sounded  to  him,  he  said,  "  like  a 
fire-bell  in  the  night." 

The  dispute  over  Missouri  involved  no  moral 
principle.  The  motive  on  both  sides  was  polit- 
ical power.  The  North  and  South  wanted  the 
votes  of  Missouri  Senators  and  Congressmen  to 
support  sectional  legislation.  If  slavery  won, 
then  the  Northern  free  laborer  would  be  shut 
out,  for  free  labor  could  not  compete  with  slave- 
labor,  and  white  men  would  not  go  where  they 
were  put  on  a  social  level  with  the  negroes.  If 
the  North  triumphed,  then  the  Southern  slave- 
holder would  be  excluded. 

Close  on  the  Missouri  Compromise  came  the 
tariff  war,  which  was  also  sectional. 

The  Tariff  Question.— Before  the  Revolution 
the  colonies  had  depended  almost  wholly  upon 
Great  Britain  for  their  manufactured  goods. 
The  two  wars  with  the  mother-country,  the  Em- 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONALITY        173 

bargo  and  Non-Intercourse  Acts,  the  exorbitant 
freight  rates,  and  the  insecurity  of  ocean  com- 
merce at  that  stormy  period  had  compelled  the 
American  people  to  make  their  own  goods.  In 
obedience  to  this  necessity  cotton  and  woollen 
manufactures  sprang  up  in  some  of  the  North- 
ern States,  chiefly  in  New  England. 

At  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812  the  English 
merchants  endeavored  to  recapture  the  American 
markets  by  underselling  their  competitors.  The 
American  manufacturers  were  in  danger  of  being 
ruined,  and  applied  to  Congress  for  protection. 
In  1816  Congress  passed  a  tariff  act  which  im- 
posed a  duty  of  about  twenty-five  per  cent  on 
cotton  and  woollen  imports.  The  tariff  of  1824 
increased  the  duty  to  thirty-seven  per  cent.  The 
higher  duties,  by  removing  foreign  competition, 
gave  to  the  Northern  manufacturer  the  whole 
American  market.  But  it  caused  dissatisfaction 
in  the  South,  which  had  no  manufactures  of  its 
own,  and  was  thus  compelled  to  pay  to  the 
Northern  manufacturers  very  high  prices  for 
necessaries  which  it  could  get  nowhere  else. 

Thus  on  the  two  great  questions  of  slavery 
and  the  tariff  the  North  and  South  took  opposite 
sides. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

ANDREW  JACKSON  AND  THE  REIGN  OF  THE 
PEOPLE 

THE  year  1828  is  a  remarkable  one  in 
American  politics.      Forces  that  had 
been  slowly  gathering  for  a  long  time 
past  had  now  assumed  definite  form  and  direc- 
tion. 

The  Election  of  Jackson. — Andrew  Jackson  was 
the  first  President  of  the  United  States  who 
really  sprang  from  and  belonged  to  the  "  com- 
mon people."  Washington,  the  two  Adamses, 
Monroe,  and  even  Thomas  Jefferson,  whose 
heart  and  sympathies  were  with  the  masses,  were 
all  members  of  the  rich  and  socially  prominent 
class  of  Americans.  Jackson  was  a  representa- 
tive of  the  growing  South-west,  a  soldier  and 
popular  hero  whose  defeat  of  the  British  at  New 
Orleans  was  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  his  coun- 
trymen. The  triumph  of  Jackson  in  the  presi- 
dential election  of  1828  over  Adams,  who  had 
the  solid  support  of  the  wealthy,  educated,  and 

174 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  PEOPLE  175 

conservative  elements,  meant  that  the  great  body 
of  the  voters  had  awakened  to  a  realization  of 
their  power,  and  from  this  time  on  were  to  be 
the  real  rulers  of  the  nation. 

Jackson  was  a  great  man,  and  in  some  re- 
spects a  great  President.  But  he  had  had  no 
previous  training  or  experience  in  statesmanship 
such  as  his  predecessors  had  enjoyed,  and  in- 
evitably made  mistakes  which  they  would  have 
avoided.  He  was  first  of  all  a  soldier,  not  a 
statesman.  He  himself  realized  this.  Parton, 
in  his  standard  biography  of  Jackson,  says  that 
when  the  hero  learned  that  a  New  York  news- 
paper had  mentioned  him  as  a  presidential  pos- 
sibility he  exclaimed :  "  Do  they  think  I  am 
such  a  damned  fool  as  to  think  myself  fit  for 
the  presidency?  No,  sir;  I  know  what  I  am 
good  for.  I  can  command  a  body  of  men  in  a 
rough  way,  but  I  am  not  fit  for  President." 
Although  thoroughly  honest  and  devoted  to  the 
public  good,  he  lacked  many  qualities  which  are 
highly  necessary  in  a  chief  executive.  He  pos- 
sessed an  extraordinary  will  to  which  obstacles 
and  opponents  almost  invariably  yielded,  and 
remarkable  intuitive  powers.  But  he  was  sus- 
ceptible to  flattery  and  was  easily  imposed  upon 
by  unscrupulous  politicians,  who  gained  his  con- 


i;6  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

fidence  and  friendship  by  artful  appeals  to  his 
weaknesses. 

The  administrations  of  Jackson  covered  eight 
years.  They  were  full  of  stirring  events  which 
were  productive  of  far-reaching  results.  He 
was  the  first  presidential  candidate  nominated  by 
a  national  convention,  and  the  first  to  stand 
upon  a  platform  of  principles  put  forth  by  such 
a  convention. 

The  Spoils  System. — The  thing  for  which 
President  Jackson  has  been  most  severely  criti- 
cised is  the  change  which  he  introduced  into  the 
civil  service.  Under  the  earlier  presidents  Fed- 
eral office-holders,  such  as  postmasters,  clerks, 
and  customs  officials,  had  held  their  positions 
as  a  general  rule  for  life  or  during  good 
behavior.  To  turn  a  man  out  of  the  employ  of 
the  Federal  Government  simply  because  he  be- 
longed to  a  different  party  was  rarely  done,  al- 
though it  was  a  common  practice  in  the  State 
politics  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania. 

When  Jackson  became  President,  one  of  his 
first  acts  was  to  order  a  wholesale  removal  of 
Federal  office-holders,  putting  in  their  places  his 
own  friends  and  followers.  This  practice  of  dis- 
tributing public  offices  among  the  members  of  the 
victorious  party  as  a  reward  for  political  services 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  PEOPLE  177 

has  always  been  regarded  by  most  thoughtful 
men  as  a  great  evil.  It  is  called  the  "  Spoils 
System "  from  the  motto  which  the  party  in 
power  so  often  quoted:  "  To  the  victors  belong 
the  spoils." 

But  the  Spoils  System  meant  something  far 
higher  than  mere  greed  for  office,  although 
that  was  doubtless  the  prime  reason  why  it 
met  with  such  enthusiastic  favor.  It  was  a 
direct  and  tangible  evidence  of  the  growing 
spirit  of  democracy )  a  demand  on  the  part  of  the 
great  rank  and  file  of  voters  that  they  be  allowed 
to  enjoy  some  of  the  positions  of  dignity  which 
they  had  instituted  and  the  salaries  of  which 
were  paid  out  of  their  taxes. 

The  Spoils  System  rendered  one  substantial 
benefit  to  the  country  by  preventing  what  might 
have  developed  into  a  bureaucracy  of  permanent 
office-holders.  It  had  its  evils,  and  great  ones, 
but  they  have  been  reduced  in  recent  years  by 
legislative  and  executive  action. 

Nullification. — This  word  as  it  is  used  in 
American  history  means  that  a  State  has  the 
right  to  declare  null  and  void  and  to  resist  any 
act  of  the  Federal  Government  which  it  disap- 
proves. It  was  first  asserted  in  the  Virginia  and 
Kentucky  Resolutions,  and  was  a  logical  conse- 


178  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

quence  of  the  principle  of  State  sovereignty, 
which  had  always  been  the  basis  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Party. 

The  question  of  nullification  arose  in  this 
way:  For  a  long  time  the  North  and  the  South 
had  been  steadily  drifting  apart.  Both  felt 
that  their  interests  were  different.  The  North 
was  largely  industrial,  the  South  altogether 
agricultural.  The  North  had  free  labor,  the 
South  slave.  The  North  wanted  a  high  pro- 
tective tariff  for  its  manufactures,  the  Southern 
planters  wanted  a  low  tariff  or  none  at  all.  Con- 
gress passed  several  tariff  laws  between  1789 
and  1828,  each  one  higher  than  the  last.  These 
laws  benefited  the  Northern  manufacturer,  but 
proved  a  burden  to  the  South,  especially  to  the 
people  of  South  Carolina. 

In  1830  a  great  tariff  debate,  involving  the 
nature  and  purport  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 
was  held  in  the  Senate  between  Robert  Y. 
Hayne,  of  South  Carolina,  and  Daniel  Webster, 
of  Massachusetts. 

Mr.  Hayne  asserted  the  doctrine  of  State 
sovereignty;  that  the  Constitution  was  a  com- 
pact between  independent  sovereign  States  and 
could  be  dissolved  by  any  State  at  any  time. 
He  declared  that  the  tariff  of  1828  was  unfair 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  PEOPLE  179 

to  the  people  of  South  Carolina,  who  therefore 
had  a  perfect  right  to  resist  its  enforcement. 

Senator  Hayne  was  answered  by  Mr.  Web- 
ster, who  took  the  position  that  the  Constitu- 
tion was  not  a  compact  between  sovereign  States 
as  States,  but  between  the  sovereign  people  of 
all  the  States;  that  no  State  could  interpret  the 
Constitution  to  suit  itself  or  resist  the  laws  of 
Congress.  Such  acts,  said  Mr.  Webster,  would 
result  in  anarchy. 

The  speech  of  Webster  made  a  deep  impres- 
sion upon  the  people  of  the  North,  giving  a 
strong  and  permanent  impulse  to  the  growing 
spirit  of  nationality. 

In  1832  Congress  passed  another  tariff  law, 
which  was  more  distasteful  to  the  people  of 
South  Carolina  than  that  of  1828.  A  State  con- 
vention met  and  proceeded  to  carry  out  the 
threat  made  by  Senator  Hayne.  The  conven- 
tion passed  an  ordinance  declaring  null  and  void 
the  tariffs  of  1828  and  1832.  All  State  officers 
were  made  to  swear  that  they  would  support  the 
ordinance.  The  convention  further  declared 
that  South  Carolina  would  secede  from  the 
Union  if  the  Federal  Government  attempted  to 
enforce  the  tariff  laws. 

President  Jackson,  although  a  Southern  man, 


180  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

was  an  intense  lover  of  the  Union.  He  issued 
a  proclamation  in  which  he  declared  that  resist- 
ance to  Federal  laws  was  treason,  and  warned 
the  people  of  South  Carolina  against  taking  such 
a  step.  Congress  passed  an  act  called  the 
"  force  bill,"  which  gave  the  President  power 
to  enforce  the  law. 

Henry  Clay  came  forward  with  a  compro- 
mise. Through  his  efforts  the  objectionable 
tariff  of  1832  was  repealed,  and  a  lower  rate 
fixed  as  a  concession  to  South  Carolina.  The 
Ordinance  of  Nullification  was  repealed,  and 
further  difficulty  was  for  the  time  avoided. 

The  Democracy  of  Jefferson  and  of  Jackson 
Compared. — We  may  see  right  at  this  point  the 
difference  between  the  earlier  democracy  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  the  founder  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Party,  and  that  of  Andrew  Jackson,  who 
was  now  its  chief. 

Both  men  believed  in  the  rule  of  the  people. 
But  Jefferson  thought  that  this  end  could  best 
be  effected  by  independent  local  governments, 
that  is,  State  sovereignty;  while  Jackson  be- 
lieved that  the  reign  of  the  people  could  only 
be  secured  through  the  Federal  Government, 
that  is,  by  the  whole  people  acting  through  the 
Nation.  Jackson's  view  was  also  the  view  of 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  PEOPLE  181 

such  leaders  as  Daniel  Webster,  Henry  Clay, 
and  Chief-justice  Marshall,  and  it  was  fast  be- 
coming the  settled  conviction  of  the  people  of 
the  North  and  West.  The  doctrine  of  State 
sovereignty  continued  to  be  firmly  held  by  the 
people  of  the  South,  where  it  found  its  ablest 
champion  in  John  C.  Calhoun,  of  South  Caro- 
lina. 

The  national  ideal  of  Jackson  was  destined 
to  triumph  in  the  end,  but  not  without  a  fierce 
and  terrible  war  between  the  South,  defend- 
ing the  ancient  theory  of  State  sovereignty, 
and  the  North,  committed  to  the  principle  of 
nationality. 

Like  Jefferson,  Jackson  believed  that  govern- 
ment to  be  the  best,  whether  local  or  national, 
which  governed  least,  even  when  the  people  were 
their  own  rulers.  He  was  watchful  to  see  that 
the  other  branches  of  the  Federal  Government 
did  not  overstep  their  Constitutional  powers, 
but  he  did  not  hesitate  to  magnify  the  preroga- 
tives of  his  own  office. 

Jackson  and  the  Bank.— In  1816  Congress 
had  chartered  for  a  period  of  twenty  years  a 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  similar  to  the  earlier 
institution  founded  by  Hamilton,  which  was  now 
defunct,  and  had  deposited  in  its  keeping  the 


i8z  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

revenues  of  the  Government.  In  1832,  four 
years  before  its  charter  expired,  Congress  grant- 
ed a  new  charter.  The  President  promptly 
vetoed  the  bill,  claiming  that  the  Constitution 
gave  Congress  no  such  power.  He  also  alleged 
that  the  existence  of  a  private  moneyed  insti- 
tution in  alliance  with  the  Government  was 
dangerous  to  the  public  welfare,  and  that 
the  bank  had  used  its  power  for  political  pur- 
poses. 

There  was  some  truth  in  these  charges.  A 
bitter  controversy  between  the  bank  and  the 
President  ensued.  In  the  election  of  1832  the 
bank  question  was  submitted  to  the  people,  who 
reelected  Jackson  by  an  immense  vote.  The 
President  felt  encouraged,  and  continued  his 
war  against  the  bank  with  renewed  vehemence. 
The  next  year  he  removed  the  Government  de- 
posits from  its  custody,  and  in  1836,  having 
failed  to  secure  a  new  charter,  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  came  to  an  end.* 

It  was  undoubtedly  best  that  there  should  be 
no  such  institution,  since  a  partnership  of  that 
sort  between  a  private  enterprise  and  the  Gov- 

*  After  the  expiration  of  its  national  charter  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States  was  incorporated  by  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE   PEOPLE  183 

ernment  was  liable  to  grave  abuses,  and  was  cer- 
tain to  be  the  object  of  popular  suspicion  and 
attack. 

The  Administration  of  Martin  Van  Buren. — 
Jackson  greatly  desired  to  be  followed  in  the 
presidency  by  his  friend  and  associate,  Martin 
Van  Buren,  who  had  been  Vice-president  since 
1832.  The  Democratic  Party,  obeying  the 
wishes  of  its  chief,  made  Van  Buren  its  candi- 
date in  the  campaign  of  1836,  with  the  result 
that  he  was  elected.  Van  Buren  was  an  able 
and  experienced  statesman  and  a  remarkably 
adroit  politician,  but  he  was  given  only  one  term 
in  the  White  House. 

In  1837  the  country  passed  through  a  period 
of  "  hard  times."  A  great  financial  panic  ruined 
business  and  brought  disaster  to  many  people. 
It  was  due  principally  to  the  frenzy  for  specula- 
tion which  had  seized  the  public  mind,  and 
found  expression  in  delusive  schemes  of  money- 
making.  The  panic  was  precipitated,  however, 
by  the  bank  policy  of  Jackson,  which  caused 
temporary  derangement  in  the  financial  world. 
The  destruction  of  the  wheat  crop  of  1836  in 
many  States  by  the  Hessian  fly  aggravated  the 
suffering  produced  by  the  rise  in  the  price  of 
money. 


184  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Rise  and  First  Success  of  the  Whig  Party.— 
Andrew  Jackson  had  been  a  self-willed  and 
arbitrary  President.  His  warfare  against  the 
bank  displeased  a  large  number  of  Democrats. 
For  the  purpose  of  opposing  Jackson  more 
effectively  his  enemies  joined  forces  with  the 
National  Republicans,  whose  leader  and  idol 
was  Henry  Clay,  the  most  eloquent  and  mag- 
netic orator  in  the  country.  Under  the  magic 
influence  of  Clay  a  new  and  effective  party  was 
organized  which  offered  a  united  opposition  to 
the  Jackson  Democrats. 

The  Whig  Party,*  for  so  it  was  named,  held 
to  the  Federalist  doctrine  of  large  powers  for 
the  national  Government,  and  to  the  National 
Republican  policies  of  internal  improvements  at 
national  expense  and  a  protective  tariff.  An- 
other of  its  leaders  was  Daniel  Webster.  In 
1832  the  Whigs  ran  Henry  Clay  for  the  presi- 
dency against  Jackson  with  the  result  already 
noted. 

The  panic  of  1837  proved  a  fortunate  event 
for  the  Whigs,  for  it  furnished  ammunition  for 

*  "Whig"  was  the  name  adopted  in  1680  by  a  political 
party  in  England  which  opposed  the  tyranny  of  the  king. 
Jackson's  enemies  denounced  him  as  a  tyrant  and  tried  to 
establish  an  historical  parallel  between  themselves  and  the 
English  party  which  stood  for  liberty. 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  PEOPLE  185 

the  guns  of  campaign  oratory.  The  Whigs 
heaped  reproach  upon  the  Democrats  and  fanned 
the  flame  of  popular  discontent 

In  1840  the  Whigs  nominated  General  Will- 
iam Henry  Harrison  for  President.  The  candi- 
date was  an  old  soldier  with  an  heroic  record 
in  the  Indian  war  of  1811.  He  had  never  been 
very  active  in  politics,  and  hence  had  made  no 
enemies.  He  was  now  living  as  a  farmer  in 
Ohio.  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  was  named  for 
Vice-president  in  order  to  draw  votes  in  the 
South. 

The  Whigs  had  no  platform,  and  did  not 
declare  for  a  single  principle.  They  simply  at- 
tacked Van  Buren's  administration,  laying  upon 
it  all  the  blame  for  the  hard  times.  General 
Harrison's  war  record  made  him  a  popular  can- 
didate. People  remembered  his  defeat  of  the 
Indians,  and  affectionately  called  him  "  Old 
Tippecanoe."  They  also  remembered  the  panic 
of  1837.  Van  Buren  was  renominated  by  the 
Democrats,  but  Harrison  was  elected  by  an  im- 
mense majority. 

The  Whigs  Fail  to  Make  a  Record.— Notwith- 
standing their  success  at  the  polls,  the  Whigs 
accomplished  nothing  of  importance  during  their 
four  years  of  supremacy  in  the  councils  of  the 


186  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

nation.  General  Harrison  was  sixty-eight  years 
old  and  physically  infirm.  The  labors  of  his 
office  proved  too  great  for  his  strength,  and  he 
died  exactly  one  month  after  his  inauguration. 

Then  trouble  began  for  the  Whigs.  John 
Tyler  became  President.  He  had  formerly  been 
a  Democrat,  but  had  left  his  party  because  he 
disliked  Jackson.  He  was  still  a  Democrat  at 
heart.  The  Whig  Congress  passed  two  bills  to 
reestablish  a  national  bank.  President  Tyler 
vetoed  them  both,  at  which  the  whole  Whig 
Party  became  enraged.  The  members  of  the 
Cabinet  resigned,  and  the  President  showed  his 
true  colors  by  appointing  Democrats  to  fill  their 
places. 

With  Congress  and  the  President  at  variance 
with  each  other  the  Whigs  could  accomplish 
but  little. 


CHAPTER   XV 

INVENTION,  LITERATURE,  MORAL  PROGRESS, 
AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

THE  population  of  the  United  States  in 
1830,  east  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
was  thirteen  millions.  The  country 
was  remarkably  prosperous.  There  were  few 
very  rich  men,  and  none  who  were  very  poor. 

The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  was  begun 
in  1827.  From  that  time  on  railroads  increased 
rapidly  in  the  East,  though  the  stage-coach  con- 
tinued to  be  for  many  years  a  common  mode  of 
travel. 

The  canals,  which  were  constructed  after  the 
War  of  1812,  proved  a  great  benefit  to  the 
farmers  by  reducing  freight  charges,  thus  ena- 
bling them  to  sell  their  produce  in  distant  mar- 
kets at  a  greater  profit. 

Invention  was  busy  devising  means  to  lessen 
human  toil  and  increase  the  product  of  indus- 
try by  making  use  of  machinery.  The  McCor- 

mick  reaper  was  placed  in  the  market  in  1831, 

187 


i88  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  proved  a  great  boon  to  agriculture.  The 
invention  of  the  sewing-machine  by  Elias  Howe 
in  1846  came  as  a  blessing  to  women  in  their 
homes  and  to  the  thousands  who  toiled  in  busy 
factories.  But  the  crowning  achievement  of  in- 
ventive genius  was  the  Morse  electric  telegraph, 
over  which  the  first  message  was  despatched  in 
1844. 

The  use  of  anthracite  coal  for  smelting  iron, 
together  with  other  improvements  in  the  process 
of  mining,  soon  placed  the  iron  and  coal  mines 
of  Pennsylvania  in  the  front  rank  of  American 
industries.  New  England  was  steadily  develop- 
ing as  a  manufacturing  centre. 

Newspapers  were  numerous  and  exerted  a 
powerful  influence  upon  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple concerning  the  prominent  questions  of  the 
day. 

Many  of  the  celebrated  authors  who  have 
contributed  so  largely  to  the  glory  of  their  coun- 
try were  now  beginning  to  write.  '  The  Sketch 
Book  "  had  already  made  the  name  of  Washing- 
ton Irving  familiar  in  Europe  as  well  as  in 
America.  James  Fenimore  Cooper's  sea-tales 
and  stories  of  pioneer  life  had  given  him  an 
international  fame.  The  histories  of  Bancroft 
and  Prescott,  the  weird  imagination  of  Edgar 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  189 

Allan  Poe,  the  mystery  of  Hawthorne,  the  prac- 
tical essays  of  Emerson,  the  poems  of  Longfel- 
low, Whittier,  Bryant,  Holmes,  and  Lowell  all 
proclaimed  that  this  country,  though  half  its 
area  was  still  unbroken  wilderness,  was  the  home 
of  a  very  real  culture  and  a  high  degree  of  in- 
tellectual life. 

Why  the  South  did  not  Develop. — In  this  in- 
dustrial and  literary  progress  the  South  had  lit- 
tle part.  The  reason  for  its  backwardness  in 
development  was  the  existence  of  slavery.  The 
Southern  people  were  as  able,  as  intelligent,  as 
ambitious  as  the  people  of  the  North,  but  as 
long  as  slavery  was  the  basis  of  their  industrial 
system  they -could  not  develop  in  the  same  direc- 
tion or  to  as  high  a  degree.  Slavery  prevented 
immigration  because  free  labor  could  not  com- 
pete with  slave  labor,  and  because  white  rnen 
would  not  perform  the  work  which  had  been 
associated  for  centuries  with  slavery.  There 
could  be  no  manufactures  because  the  slave  was 
incapable  of  anything  but  agriculture,  and  even 
in  that  he  was  slow,  stupid,  and  wasteful. 

If  slavery  was  a  burden,  why  did  not  the 
South  get  rid  of  it?  One  reason  was  that  the 
South  did  not  realize  how  great  a  burden  it 
really  was.  Slavery  had  always  existed;  the 


IQO  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

South  had  never  known  any  other  system.  To 
change  its  industrial  basis  would  have  been  a 
tremendous  undertaking,  involving  huge  finan- 
cial risk,  perhaps  temporary  ruin.  If  the  slave 
should  be  emancipated,  what  would  become  of 
him,  and  who  would  take  his  place  ?  The  South 
would  have  to  pay  him  wages  and  would  get  no 
better  work. 

Slave  Life. — If  slavery  was  on  the  whole  a  bad 
thing  for  the  white  man,  it  conferred  unques- 
tionable benefits  upon  the  black  man.  It  found 
the  negro  a  savage  of  the  lowest  type  in  Africa, 
and  in  less  than  two  centuries  transformed  him 
into  a  civilized  being,  trained  and  Christian- 
ized. 

But  the  lot  of  the  slave  differed  according  to 
locality  and  according  to  the  kind  of  service  he 
performed.  In  the  Border  States  the  evils  of 
slavery  were  less  and  its  benefits  to  the  negro 
greater  than  in  the  Far  South.  Again,  house- 
servants  were  better  cared  for  than  field-hands. 
Between  the  house-servant  and  the  family  of  the 
master  there  often  existed  a  deep  and  sincere 
personal  attachment.  He  was  frequently  edu- 
cated in  a  rudimentary  way  and  always  well 
cared  for.  The  field-hands  were  less  fortunate. 
Their  hours  were  long,  their  food  and  cloth- 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  191 

ing  coarse,  and  their  treatment  sometimes 
cruel. 

It  is  a  fact  of  marked  significance  that  serious 
crime  among  negroes  was  almost  unknown  in 
the  days  of  slavery. 

The  Abolitionists.— With  the  exception  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Quakers  and  some  of  the  German 
sects,  who  had  raised  an  early  protest  against 
slavery,  there  was  very  little  hostility  to  the  in- 
stitution on  moral  grounds  anywhere  in  the 
North  until  1830.  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  enacted  stringent 
legislation  against  negroes,  either  forbidding 
their  presence  in  the  State  or  prescribing 
conditions  and  duration  of  residence.  In 
Boston  a  merchant  or  a  mechanic  who  took 
a  negro  apprentice  incurred  the  bane  of  os- 
tracism. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1831,  a  news- 
paper appeared  in  that  city  called  the  Liberator. 
It  was  edited  by  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and 
championed  the  cause  of  emancipation.  Within 
ten  years  there  were  hundreds  of  anti-slavery  so- 
cieties in  the  Northern  States  advocating  the 
immediate  abolition  of  slavery.  Prominent 
among  the  abolitionists  were  Wendell  Phillips 
and  Theodore  Parker,  of  Boston,  both  leading 


192  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

citizens  and  eloquent  orators;  Gerrit  Smith, 
Lucretia  Mott,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  John  Green- 
leaf  Whittier,  and  later  James  Russell  Lowell 
and  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

Public  opinion  in  the  North  was  intensely 
hostile  to  the  abolitionists.  The  commercial 
interests  opposed  them  because  their  doctrines 
jeopardized  trade  relations  with  the  South. 
The  abolitionists  were  denounced  as  enemies  of 
the  Union,  and  with  reason,  for  their  slogan 
was,  "  Extinguish  slavery  or  dissolve  the 
Union."  Wendell  Phillips,  who  was  graduated 
a  lawyer,  refused  to  support  the  Constitution 
because  it  recognized  slavery.  Garrison  called 
the  Constitution  "  a  covenant  with  death  and 
an  agreement  with  hell."  Abolition  newspapers 
were  destroyed  and  the  leaders  themselves  fre- 
quently mobbed.  George  Thompson,  a  British 
orator  in  the  cause  of  abolition,  was  ejected  from 
a  hotel  in  New  York  at  the  demand  of  a  South- 
ern guest,  and  the  lecturer  was  publicly  warned 
by  the  press  not  to  speak  in  the  city.  In  New 
England  he  fared  much  worse. 

But  the  movement  gathered  strength  despite 
opposition,  and  the  conviction  that  slavery  was 
morally  wrong  rapidly  took  root  in  the  North- 
ern mind. 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  193 

The  South  was  naturally  incensed  at  the  men 
who  called  slave-holding  a  sin  and  advocated 
with  such  fiery  and  persistent  zeal  the  destruc- 
tion of  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  private 
property  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution.  The 
Southern  people  resented  being  held  up  as  the 
arch-sinners  of  the  nation  merely  because  they 
adhered  to  a  system  of  labor  inherited  from 
their  fathers,  for  which  they  were  no  more  re- 
sponsible than  the  people  of  the  North.  If  the 
abolitionist  regarded  the  slave-holder  as  a  mon- 
ster, the  slave-holder  looked  upon  the  abolition- 
ist as  an  anarchist. 

Great  Statesmen. — The  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  an  age  of  great  statesmen. 
In  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
were  some  of  the  most  gifted  men  in  the  history 
of  the  nation:  John  C.  Calhoun,  the  able  de- 
fender of  State  sovereignty;  Henry  Clay  and 
Daniel  Webster,  the  zealous  champions  of  na- 
tionality, and  others  scarcely  less  distinguished. 

Here,  at  least,  the  South  was  not  behind  the 
North.  The  Southerner  had  a  natural  aptitude 
for  political  leadership,  which  had  always  been 
recognized  ever  since  the  days  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  institution  of  slavery  bred  in  him  the 
habit  of  authority  and  gave  him  leisure  for  the 


194  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

mastery  of  politics,  which  became  his  most  seri- 
ous occupation. 

Another  reason  why  there  were  so  many  men 
of  extraordinary  ability  in  political  life,  North 
as  well  as  South,  is  because  at  that  time  there 
was  but  one  profession  which  offered  oppor- 
tunity for  both  wealth  and  fame.  That  profes- 
sion was  the  law.  It  is  not  far  from  the  truth 
to  say  that  all  lawyers  were  politicians  and  all 
politicians  were  lawyers.  The  practice  of  law 
brought  wealth,  while  politics  brought  popular- 
ity and  distinction.  To-day  there  are  many 
occupations  where  the  opportunities  for  wealth 
and  fame  are  as  great  as  in  the  law.  For  this 
reason  law  and  politics  no  longer  attract  all  the 
best  talent  of  the  land. 

Growth  of  Democracy. — In  its  structure  the 
Government  was  developing  along  the  lines  of 
federalism  and  nationality  marked  out  by  Alex- 
ander Hamilton.  But  in  its  spirit  it  was  stead- 
ily realizing  the  democratic  ideals  of  Thomas 
Jefferson.  The  people  had  vastly  more  influ- 
ence and  political  power  than  they  possessed 
when  the  Constitution  was  adopted  in  1789. 
At  that  time  nearly  every  State  refused  to  allow 
a  man  to  vote  unless  he  owned  a  certain  amount 
of  property  or  belonged  to  a  certain  church. 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  195 

Out  of  a  total  population  of  five  millions,  only 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  in  the  United 
States  were  voters.  Gradually  the  leaven  of 
democracy  spread.  Older  States  removed  some 
of  their  restrictions  upon  the  suffrage,  while  the 
new  States  in  their  constitutions  prescribed 
broader  qualifications.  By  1830  the  suffrage 
was  almost  as  free  as  it  is  to-day. 

The  growing  spirit  of  fraternity  found  ex- 
pression in  various  reforms  and  humanitarian 
movements,  such  as  the  establishment  of  public 
hospitals,  asylums,  libraries,  and  the  improve- 
ment of  prisons.  The  Eastern  Penitentiary  at 
Philadelphia,  built  in  1830,  first  provided  sepa- 
rate cells  for  criminals.  New  York  and  Penn- 
sylvania were  the  pioneers  in  the  establishment 
of  rural  schools,  which  placed  the  rudiments  of 
education  within  easy  reach  of  the  country  boys 
and  girls.  In  1833  Oberlin  College  in  Ohio 
opened  its  doors  to  women. 

We  cannot  emphasize  too  strongly  the  im- 
portance of  this  democratic  spirit  which  was  be- 
coming more  and  more  the  keynote  of  American 
life.  It  is  a  part  of  the  American  creed  that 
every  man  deserves  and  ought  to  have  a  fair 
chance  to  succeed  in  life;  that  a  man  must  be 
judged  not  by  his  family  descent,  not  by  his 


196  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

wealth,  not  by  his  education,  but  by  what  he 
is  and  what  he  accomplishes;  by  the  use  which 
he  makes  of  the  opportunities  which  America 
affords  him. 

NOTE.— THE  MORMONS.  In  1830  Joseph  Smith,  an 
ignorant  but  shrewd  adventurer,  proclaimed  that  he  had  re- 
ceived a  divine  commission  to  found  a  new  religion.  He 
claimed  to  have  discovered,  through  an  angel,  some  golden 
tablets  containing  a  revelation  from  heaven  which  he  pub- 
lished as  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Smith  gained  converts  and 
established  successive  settlements  in  Ohio,  Missouri,  and 
Illinois.  His  followers  took  the  name  of  Mormons  or  Latter- 
day  Saints. 

After  the  death  of  Smith  in  Nauvoo,  111.,  at  the  hands  of 
a  mob,  Brigham  Young  led  the  "Saints"  to  Utah,  where 
they  built  Salt  Lake  City.  Polygamy  was  enjoined  upon 
the  Mormons  by  their  early  leaders  as  a  religious  and 
political  duty.  When  Utah  was  admitted  as  a  State  in 
1896  it  was  on  condition  that  the  practice  of  plural  mar- 
riage should  be  abandoned — a  pledge  which  has  been  per- 
sistently and  flagrantly  disregarded. 

The  extraordinary  thing  about  Mormonism  is  its  superb 
organization.  The  Church  is  ruled  by  twelve  Apostles 
whose  word  is  law  and  who  practically  own  the  State.  The 
Mormons  number  about  three  hundred  thousand.  They 
are  exceedingly  prosperous. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS 

JOHN  TYLER  was  an  accidental  President, 
whose  elevation  to  that  office  was  due  to 
the  death  of  his  chief.     He  was  anxious 
to  be  elected  President  on  his  own  strength  and 
merits. 

Texas  and  the  Election  of  1844. — As  he  could 
not  hope  to  be  nominated  by  the  Whigs,  Tyler 
determined  to  gain  the  favor  of  the  Democrats 
by  advocating  the  annexation  of  Texas,  a  meas- 
ure greatly  desired  by  the  dominant  Southern 
wing  of  the  Democratic  Party.  Neither  the 
Northern  Democrats  nor  the  Whigs  wanted 
Texas,  but  as  the  main  strength  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Party  was  in  the  South  it  was  to  President 
Tyler's  advantage  to  cultivate  the  favor  of  the 
Southern  Democrats.  Besides,  being  a  Southern 
man,  he  naturally  favored  his  own  section. 

Texas  had  long  been  a  province  of  Mexico, 
but  its  population  was  largely  composed  of 

197 


198  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

American  settlers  from  the  Southern  States.  In 
1836  Texas  revolted  from  Mexico  and  estab- 
lished an  independent  republic  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Sam  Houston,  formerly  Governor  of 
Tennessee,  and  the  next  year  applied  for  admis- 
sion to  the  Union. 

The  Southern  politicians  favored  its  admis- 
sion because  it  would  give  the  South  two  more 
members  in  the  Senate,  where  all  the  States  were 
equal  in  representation,  and  thus  make  up  for 
their  weakness  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
where  the  North  had  a  steadily  growing  ma- 
jority. 

The  North  was  opposed  to  the  admission  of 
Texas  because  it  meant  an  extension  of  slave 
territory  and  of  Southern  political  power. 

In  the  hope  of  gaining  the  Democratic  nomi- 
nation President  Tyler  did  his  best  to  bring 
about  the  annexation  of  Texas  during  his  term 
of  office.  He  did  not  succeed  in  either  of  his 
purposes,  but  he  made  the  Texas  question  the 
main  issue  in  the  election  of  1844. 

The  Democrats  Again  in  Power. — The  Whigs 
nominated  Henry  Clay  and  declared  against  an- 
nexation. The  Democrats  nominated  James  K. 
Polk,  of  Tennessee,  and  George  M.  Dallas,  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  declared  for  annexation.  The 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS  199 

abolitionists,  whose  strength  was  increasing,  or- 
ganized the  Liberty  Party  and  took  the  field  on 
the  issue  of  slavery  with  James  G.  Birney  as  its 
presidential  candidate. 

The  election  turned  upon  New  York,  where 
the  Liberty  Party  drew  so  many  votes  from  the 
Whigs  that  the  Democrats  carried  the  State. 

The  Democratic  Party  was  again  in  full  con- 
trol of  the  national  Government.  Congress 
passed  a  resolution  of  annexation,  and  Texas 
became  a  State  of  the  Union  in  1845. 

Henceforth  the  question  of  the  extension  of 
slavery  was  the  one  absorbing  issue  in  all  minds. 

The  War  with  Mexico,  1846-48.— The  South 
did  not  long  remain  content  with  the  single  addi- 
tion of  Texas  to  the  strength  and  number  of  the 
slave  States.  The  rapid  growth  of  Northern 
population  meant  an  increasing  Northern  ma- 
jority in  Congress.  The  only  way  for  the  South 
to  preserve  its  influence  in  the  national  Govern- 
ment was  to  increase  its  representation  in  the 
Senate.  This  could  be  done  only  by  creating 
new  States,  which  required  the  addition  of  more 
south-western  territory.  But  there  was  no  more 
available ;  everything  west  of  Texas  belonged  to 
Mexico. 

The  United  States  Government,  finding  itself 


200  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

unable  to  acquire  justly  the  additional  territory 
demanded  by  the  South,  thereupon  resorted 
to  an  extraordinary  measure.  It  decided  to  take 
by  force  a  portion  of  Mexico  and  annex  it  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Southern  slave-holders. 

Between  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Nueces 
rivers  lay  a  strip  of  territory  about  three  hun- 
dred miles  long  by  fifty  to  one  hundred  wide. 
Both  the  United  States  and  Mexico  claimed  this 
land,  but  it  really  belonged  to  Mexico. 

President  Polk  sent  a  fleet  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  ordered  General  Zachary  Taylor 
to  take  possession  of  the  disputed  territory.  On 
May  8th,  at  Palo  Alto,  General  Taylor  encoun- 
tered a  Mexican  army  three  times  as  large  as  his 
own  and  won  a  complete  victory.  The  next 
day  he  defeated  the  Mexicans  at  the  battle  of 
Resaca  de  la  Palma,  and  in  September  took  the 
city  of  Monterey.  The  capture  of  Monterey 
was  followed  a  few  months  later  by  the  victory 
of  Buena  Vista,  where  General  Taylor  and 
General  Wool,  with  only  five  thousand  Ameri- 
cans, defeated  twenty  thousand  Mexicans  under 
Santa  Anna. 

The  battle  of  Buena  Vista  ended  General 
Taylor's  military  career.  The  Whigs  were  be- 
ginning to  mention  his  name  as  a  candidate  for 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS  201 

the  presidency.  The  Democratic  administra- 
tion feared  that  if  he  were  allowed  to  win  any 
more  victories  he  would  become  such  a  popular 
hero  that  nothing  could  prevent  his  nomination 
and  election.  General  Taylor  was  therefore 
ordered  home,  and  General  Winfield  Scott  took 
his  place. 

General  Scott  proved  fully  as  successful  as 
Taylor.  With  the  aid  of  a  fleet  the  coast  city 
of  Vera  Cruz  was  taken  (March  27,  1847). 
From  that  point  General  Scott  began  his  march 
to  the  capital  of  Mexico,  a  city  of  two  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants,  situated  two  hundred  miles 
in  the  interior  on  a  high  plateau,  ascent  to  which 
was  difficult  and  dangerous.  A  succession  of 
brilliant  victories  marked  his  progress.  On 
September  I4th  six  thousand  American  troops 
entered  in  triumph  the  City  of  Mexico  and 
raised  the  stars  and  stripes  over  the  palace. 

The  war  was  over.  It  had  been  an  unbroken 
series  of  victories  for  the  Americans  against 
vastly  superior  numbers.  The  Mexicans  were 
brave  soldiers,  but  they  were  badly  organized, 
poorly  officered,  and  the  Mexican  Government 
was  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  The  Americans  were 
thoroughly  disciplined,  and  their  generals  and 
regimental  officers  were  unusually  able  men. 


202  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Just  as  the  French  and  Indian  War  had  pre- 
pared the  colonial  officers  for  the  larger  battles 
of  the  Revolution,  so  the  war  with  Mexico 
served  as  the  training  school  for  the  future 
commanders  who  were  to  lead  the  armies  of 
the  North  and  of  the  South  in  the  great  Civil 
War  fast  approaching. 

Results  of  the  Mexican  War. — On  February 
2,  1848,  the  peace  commissioners  of  the  two 
countries  signed  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe 
Hidalgo,  so  called  from  the  town  where  the 
commissioners  met.  Mexico  gave  up  to  the 
United  States  not  only  the  small  tract  between 
the  Rio  Grande  and  Nueces  rivers,  but  the  vast 
territory  lying  between  Texas  and  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  comprising  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  Cali- 
fornia, Utah,  Nevada,  and  parts  of  Colorado 
and  Wyoming. 

As  if  in  partial  apology  for  its  ruthless  bri- 
gandage, the  United  States  paid  Mexico  a 
gratuity  of  $15,000,000  for  the  forced  cession 
of  this  valuable  area — the  only  feature  of  the 
entire  affair  at  all  indicative  of  that  magnan- 
imity and  decency  which  have  usually  character- 
ized the  proceedings  of  this  nation. 

The  Mexican  War  had  the  further  effect  of 
making  slavery  more  than  ever  the  paramount 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS  203 

issue  of  the  day,  for  the  question  immediately 
arose,  Shall  slavery  be  permitted  to  spread  to 
the  new  territories?  The  North  said  no;  the 
South,  yes.  The  question  came  definitely  before 
the  country  when  David  Wilmot,  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Pennsylvania,  moved  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  that  slavery  be  for- 
ever excluded  from  the  territory  won  from 
Mexico.  The  motion  was  voted  down,  but 
the  Wilmot  Proviso  became  the  rallying  point 
for  the  growing  anti-slavery  forces  of  the 
North. 

The  Election  of  1848.— The  Whigs,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  General  Taylor's  great  popularity, 
nominated  him  for  President  at  a  convention 
held  in  Philadelphia.  Neither  Whigs  nor  Dem- 
ocrats were  willing  at  this  time  to  take  a  bold 
stand  for  or  against  slavery  in  the  territories, 
since  both  parties  were  afraid  of  losing  votes 
if  they  committed  themselves  in  one  way  or  the 
other.  Many  of  the  anti-slavery  men  thereupon 
withdrew  from  the  old  parties,  and  uniting  with 
the  Liberty  men,  or  extreme  abolitionists,  formed 
the  Free  Soil  Party,  and  nominated  ex- President 
Martin  Van  Buren,  of  New  York. 

Again,  as  in  1844,  the  election  turned  upon 
New  York,  Van  Buren  drew  so  many  Demo- 


204  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

cratic  votes  that  the  State  was  carried  by  the 
Whigs,  and  Taylor  was  elected. 

California. — In  the  summer  of  1848  some 
workmen,  while  building  a  saw-mill  on  the  Sac- 
ramento River,  saw  bright  yellow  particles 
gleaming  in  the  sand.  Upon  examination  these 
proved  to  be  gold. 

In  a  short  time  the  whole  world  knew  that 
gold  had  been  discovered  in  California.  The 
country  went  wild.  Physicians  abandoned  their 
practice,  judges  left  the  bench,  merchants  closed 
their  shops,  and  farmers  sold  their  acres.  A 
torrent  of  humanity  crazy  for  wealth  poured 
into  California.  There  were  no  great  railroads 
connecting  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  over 
which  eager  men  might  speed  in  five  days. 
Some  crossed  the  mountains  and  prairies  of  the 
West  in  deadly  peril  of  hostile  Indians;  some 
went  by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  with  its 
no  less  deadly  fevers;  others  took  passage  in 
slow  sailing  vessels  down  the  South  American 
coast  and  around  Cape  Horn,  the  longest,  but 
the  safest  of  the  three  routes.  Cities  and  towns 
sprang  up  almost  in  a  night. 

Within  a  year  there  were  enough  people  in 
California  to  warrant  its  admission  as  a  State. 
Then  trouble  began.  The  immigrants  from 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS  205 

Northern  States  outnumbered  those  from  the 
South.  The  majority  were  opposed  to  slavery, 
and  drew  up  a  State  Constitution  which  forbade 
it.  The  South,  finding  that  so  large  a  part  of 
the  territory  which  had  been  gained  for  slavery 
at  the  terrible  cost  of  war  was  about  to  join 
forces  with  the  North,  opposed  the  admission 
of  California. 

Again  the  "  Great  Pacificator,"  Henry  Clay, 
came  forward  with  a  compromise.  He  more 
than  any  other  man  had  secured  the  passage 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  com- 
promise tariff  of  1833.  Now,  for  the  third  and 
last  time,  this  patriotic  statesman,  whose  one 
purpose  was  to  preserve  the  Union  of  the  States, 
guided  the  embittered  sections  through  another 
crisis. 

The  Compromise  of  1850.— The  measures  ad- 
vocated by  Henry  Clay  consisted  of  a  series  of 
eight  laws  which  were  passed  during  the  summer 
of  1850.  The  most  important  features  were 
these :  i.  California  to  be  admitted  as  a  free  State 
in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  majority  of 
its  citizens.  2.  A  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  demand- 
ing the  return  of  runaway  slaves  who  might  es- 
cape to  the  Northern  States.  3.  The  people  of 
New  Mexico  and  Utah  to  determine  for  them- 


206  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

selves  whether  or  not  slavery  should  be  allowed 
to  exist  in  those  territories. 

The  first  law  pleased  the  North,  but  dis- 
pleased the  South;  the  third  pleased  the  South, 
but  not  the  North ;  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was 
obviously  in  favor  of  the  slave-holders,  and 
highly  repugnant  to  the  Northern  abolitionists, 
but  was  in  strict  accord  with  the  Constitu- 
tion. However,  the  Compromise  of  1850 
seemed  to  be  the  best  arrangement  that  could 
be  made. 

Three  Great  Speeches  were  made  in  the  Senate 
in  the  month  of  March  while  the  Compromise 
was  under  discussion.  The  first  was  a  strong 
and  eloquent  argument  by  John  C.  Calhoun,  de- 
fending the  institution  of  slavery.  The  second 
speech  was  by  Daniel  Webster,  supporting  all 
the  measures  of  the  Compromise;  it  was  an  ap- 
peal for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  which 
he  clearly  saw  was  imperilled,  and  was  addressed 
to  the  temperate  and  conservative  element  of  the 
entire  nation.  The  third  represented  the  ex- 
treme abolitionist  point  of  view,  and  was  deliv- 
ered in  opposition  to  the  measure  by  William 
H.  Seward,  of  New  York. 

Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun  died  within  a 
short  time  of  each  other,  and  their  places  were 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS  207 

taken  by  Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  Sew- 
ard,  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois. 

The  Election  of  1852  and  the  Death  of  the  Whig 
Party. — President  Taylor  had  died  the  year 
after  his  inauguration,  and  had  been  succeeded 
by  the  Vice-president,  Millard  Fillmore.  Nei- 
ther Taylor  nor  Fillmore  was  a  political  leader. 

There  was  great  dissatisfaction  throughout 
the  nation  with  the  Whig  Party.  It  had  tried  to 
steer  a  middle  course  between  the  friends  and 
the  enemies  of  slavery.  It  had  endeavored  to 
please  both  sides  while  committing  itself  to 
neither.  Its  Northern  members  were  displeased 
because  it  would  not  condemn  slavery,  and  its 
Southern  members  because  it  would  not  de- 
nounce the  abolitionists.  In  the  election  of  1852 
it  carried  only  four  States.  This  marked  the 
end  of  the  Whig  Party.  The  Federalist  Party, 
from  which  the  Whigs  were  descended,  and 
whose  principles  and  policies  they  had  inherited 
to  a  great  extent,  died  because  it  was  too  aris- 
tocratic. The  Whig  Party  died  because  it  lacked 
backbone.  It  left  no  permanent  legislation,  and 
is  not  associated  with  any  great  or  vital  facts 
in  American  history. 

The  Democratic  Party,  on  the  contrary,  stood 
for  definite  ideas  and  purposes,  although  they 


208  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

were  not  always  right  ones.  Its  main  strength 
was  in  the  South,  but  it  was  powerful  also  in  the 
North.  It  was  as  old  as  the  national  Govern- 
ment itself,  it  had  played  an  important  part  in 
history,  and  its  leaders  had  been  among  the 
greatest  of  Americans.  These  facts  gave  it  a 
place  in  the  affections  of  the  people.  It  had  not 
vacillated,  as  the  Whig  Party  had  done,  but  was 
outspoken  in  its  defence  of  slavery — though  not 
unanimously  in  favor  of  its  extension.  This  was 
because  the  Constitution  recognized  and  allowed 
slavery,  and  the  Democratic  Party  was  pledged 
to  defend  whatever  rights  were  guaranteed  by 
the  Constitution. 

With  the  defeat  of  the  Whigs  in  1852  the 
Democrats  returned  to  power,  electing  Franklin 
Pierce,  of  New  Hampshire,  President. 

The  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  1854. — A  new 
Democratic  leader  now  appeared  in  the  person 
of  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  United  States  Senator 
from  Illinois.  He  introduced  a  bill  in  Congress 
providing  territorial  government  for  Kansas 
and  Nebraska,  which  included  that  part  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  extending  from  Indian  Ter- 
ritory to  the  Canadian  boundary.  From  this  re- 
gion slavery  had  supposedly  been  forever  ex- 
cluded by  the  Missouri  Compromise. 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    209 

The  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  was  a  Southern 
measure.  It  declared  that  Congress  had  ex- 
ceeded its  Constitutional  authority  when  it  passed 
the  Missouri  Compromise;  that  it  was  for  the 
people  of  the  territories,  not  for  Congress,  to 
say  whether  slavery  should  exist  there ;  and  that 
consequently  the  Missouri  Compromise,  which 
had  been  in  force  for  thirty-four  years,  was  null 
and  void.  The  doctrine  involved  in  this  law  was 
popularly  known  as  "  Squatter  Sovereignty." 

The  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  was 
a  great  blunder,  for  it  reopened  the  question  of 
slavery  in  a  region  where  the  North  and  the 
South  had  by  mutual  agreement  ceased  to  dis- 
pute about  it. 

Violence  in  Kansas. — Immigrants  from  North- 
ern and  Southern  States  flocked  in  great  num- 
bers to  Kansas,  which  became  the  battle-ground 
between  freedom  and  slavery.  The  ambitions 
of  the  South  had  suffered  partial  defeat  when 
California  came  in  as  a  free  State,  and  the 
South  was  determined  that  Kansas  should  be 
admitted  as  a  slave  State  to  balance  the  loss 
of  California.  The  North  was  equally  deter- 
mined that  it  should  enter  as  a  free  State.  The 
first  election  was  claimed  by  both  the  slavery 
and  anti-slavery  forces,  and  each  side  formed  a 


210  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

territorial  government.  Anarchy  and  blood- 
shed followed.  Eventually  the  immigrants 
from  the  North  outnumbered  those  from  the 
South,  as  they  had  done  in  the  case  of  Califor- 
nia. They  drew  up  a  constitution  prohibiting 
slavery,  but  Kansas  did  not  become  a  State 
until  1861. 

The  Birth  of  the  Republican  Party  and  the 
Election  of  1856. — The  Kansas-Nebraska  Act 
had  the  effect  of  consolidating  the  anti-slavery 
forces.  Many  Northern  Democrats  joined  the 
Free  Soil  Party,  which  had  also  absorbed  many 
Whigs.  These  men,  led  by  William  H.  Seward, 
of  New  York,  and  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio, 
organized  the  Republican  Party,  and  took  the 
field  on  the  principal  issue  of  slavery. 

The  Republican  Party  was  the  lineal  de- 
scendant of  the  Federalist  and  Whig  parties. 
It  believed  in  liberal  powers  for  the  Federal 
Government,  and  declared  that  Congress  had 
full  power  to  permit  or  forbid  slavery  in  the 
territories,  regardless  of  the  wishes  of  the  in- 
habitants. It  also  favored  the  Whig  policies  of 
internal  improvements  at  national  expense  and 
a  protective  tariff. 

The  birth  of  the  Republican  Party  definitely 
aligned  the  North  and  South  against  each  other. 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS  211 

There  were  no  Southern  members  to  compel  it 
to  hedge  or  temporize.  Its  avowed  purpose 
was  to  overthrow  the  slave  power. 

The  Southern  Whigs,  alarmed  at  the  aggres- 
siveness and  growing  influence  of  the  abolition- 
ists, joined  the  Democrats.  Slavery  was  divid- 
ing the  parties,  as  it  had  already  split  the 
churches.* 

In  1856  the  Republican  Party  named  its  first 
presidential  ticket,  which  was  headed  by  John 
C.  Fremont,  of  California.  The  Democrats 
had  lost  strength  in  the  North,  and  could  not 
hope  to  win  without  Pennsylvania.  In  order 
to  make  sure  of  that  State  they  nominated  James 
Buchanan,  who  had  served  as  Secretary  of  State 
in  Pierce's  administration.  Buchanan  was 
elected,  but  the  Republicans  carried  eleven 
States. 

The  election  of  1856  exhibited  a  united 
South  pitted  against  a  disunited  North.  The 
new  President  sympathized  wholly  with  the 

*  Between  1844  and  1853  the  Methodist,  Baptist,  and 
Presbyterian  churches  separated  into  Northern  and  Southern 
organizations  over  the  question  of  slavery.  The  last  few 
years  have  witnessed  successful  efforts  to  bridge  the  chasm 
created  so  long  ago.  Although  the  Northern  and  Southern 
branches  of  these  denominations  have  not  come  into  an  or- 
ganic reunion,  their  relations  are  wholly  fraternal. 


212  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

South,  and  appointed  Southern  men  to  fill  most 
of  his  Cabinet  offices. 

The  Dred  Scott  Decision. — In  1857  the  Su- 
preme Court  rendered  a  decision  which  con- 
firmed the  Southern  and  Democratic  view  that 
Congress  had  no  right  to  legislate  for  the  terri- 
tories on  the  question  of  slavery. 

One  of  the  powers  exercised  by  the  Supreme 
Court  is  to  declare  whether  the  laws  passed  by 
Congress  are  in  accord  with  the  Constitution. 
But  the  Court  cannot  pass  upon  the  Constitu- 
tionality of  any  law  until  some  case  comes  regu- 
larly before  it  which  involves  that  question. 
The  Missouri  Compromise  had  been  in  effect 
for  nearly  forty  years,  and  no  lawsuit  had  ever 
been  brought  to  test  its  Constitutionality  until 
1857. 

Dred  Scott  was  a  slave  belonging  to  a  sur- 
geon in  the  army.  His  master  was  ordered  by 
the  Government  to  a  garrison  in  the  Nebraska 
territory,  and  took  the  slave  with  him.  After 
remaining  there  two  years,  master  and  slave  re- 
turned to  Missouri,  where  Dred  Scott  was  sold. 
The  slave  then  brought  suit  against  his  master 
for  his  freedom.  He  argued  that  since  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  had  forever  prohibited  sla- 
very in  that  territory  he  had  become  a  free  man 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS  213 

by  living  there.  Then  it  was  that  the  Supreme 
Court,  to  which  the  case  had  been  appealed,  de- 
cided that  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  null 
and  void  because  the  Constitution  gave  Con- 
gress no  power  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  ter- 
ritories. 

This  decision  was  perfectly  consistent  with 
the  Democratic  doctrine  of  large  powers  for 
local  government  and  limited  powers  for  the 
Federal  Government.  The  South  hailed  it  with 
approval,  the  North  with  contempt. 

The  Raid  and  Execution  of  John  Brown. — In 
1859  occurred  an  event  which  further  fanned 
the  flame  of  sectional  bitterness.  John  Brown 
had  been  one  of  the  free-State  leaders  in  the 
Kansas  troubles.  He  was  honest  and  coura- 
geous, but  lacked  judgment,  and  was  a  fanatic  on 
the  subject  of  slavery.  In  the  summer  of  1859 
Brown  and  a  band  of  followers  seized  the 
United  States  Arsenal  at  Harper's  Ferry  for 
the  purpose  of  distributing  the  arms  which  it 
contained  to  the  slaves  of  Virginia,  so  that  they 
might  rise  in  insurrection  and  secure  their  free- 
dom. United  States  troops  and  militia  from 
Virginia  and  Maryland  were  sent  to  Harper's 
Ferry  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Robert 
E.  Lee.  John  Brown  was  captured,  and  after 


214  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

a  fair  and  open  trial  by  the  State  of  Virginia 
was  convicted  of  murder  and  treason  and 
hanged. 

The  John  Brown  raid  injured  the  abolition- 
ist cause  for  a  time.  Public  opinion  was  strong- 
ly against  such  methods,  and  there  was  a  slight 
reaction  in  favor  of  the  slave-holder.  The 
South,  having  in  mind  the  recent  West  Indian 
slave  insurrection,  where  murder,  arson,  and 
anarchy  ran  their  horrible  course,  realized  the 
peril  of  a  slave  uprising,  and  was  more  bitter 
than  ever  against  the  abolitionists. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

SECESSION 

THE  presidential  year  1860  found  sec- 
tional lines  more  sharply  drawn  than 
ever.  What  shall  be  the  attitude  of 
Congress  toward  slavery  in  the  territories? 
This  was  the  question  which  the  political  par- 
ties must  face. 

The  Election  of  Abraham  Lincoln. — The  Demo- 
cratic Party  met  in  convention  at  Charleston, 
S.  C.  It  was  hopelessly  divided.  After  ballot- 
ing fifty-seven  times  in  vain  for  a  candidate  it 
adjourned. 

The  Southern  wing  met  in  Richmond  and 
nominated  John  C.  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky. 
It  declared  that  slavery  was  recognized  by  the 
Constitution,  and  that  it  was  just  as  much  the 
duty  of  Congress  to  protect  the  rights  of  the 
slave-holder  to  his  property  in  the  territories  as 
elsewhere. 

The  Northern  Democrats  met  in  Baltimore 
and  nominated  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  They  de- 
sired to  get  the  slavery  issue  entirely  out  of 

215 


216  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

national  politics.  Their  platform  declared  that 
the  Constitution  had  given  Congress  no  power 
to  deal  with  the  question,  but  that  the  territories 
must  decide  for  themselves.  This  had  been  the 
Democratic  position  in  the  debates  on  the  Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill. 

The  Republicans  assembled  in  Chicago  and 
nominated  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois.  He 
had  first  attracted  national  attention  in  1858  by 
a  series  of  brilliant  debates  with  Douglas  when 
both  men  were  canvassing  Illinois  for  the  United 
States  senatorship.  The  Republican  platform 
pronounced  slavery  to  be  an  evil.  It  affirmed 
that  it  was  both  the  right  and  the  duty  of  Con- 
gress to  keep  it  out  of  the  territories,  although 
denying  any  intention  to  interfere  with  it  in  the 
States  where  it  already  existed.  The  party  re- 
peated its  declaration  of  1856  in  favor  of  a  pro- 
tective tariff. 

A  fourth  party,  composed  of  those  who  did 
not  know  just  where  they  stood,  but  desired 
peace  above  all  else,  took  the  name  of  Consti- 
tutional Union.  Their  slogan  was  "  The  Con- 
stitution, the  Union,  and  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws  " — which  meant  nothing  at  all,  unless  it 
meant  to  continue  things  as  they  were,  which 
was  impossible. 


SECESSION  217 

The  contest  narrowed  down  to  a  duel  be- 
tween the  Southern  Democrats  and  the  Repub- 
licans over  the  question,  Shall  Congress  protect 
or  shall  it  forbid  slavery  in  the  territories? 
With  a  few  exceptions,  the  Breckinridge  Dem- 
ocrats swept  the  slave  States  from  Delaware  to 
Texas.  The  Republicans  carried  all  the  free 
States.*  Lincoln  was  elected,  although  in  a 
minority  of  a  million  in  the  total  popular  vote. 

Thus  the  South  lost  the  supremacy  which  it 
had  held  in  the  national  councils  since  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Government. 

Secession  of  the  Cotton  States. — The  slave- 
holders of  the  cotton  States  had  all  along  been 
the  most  aggressive  champions  of  slavery  and 
the  most  zealous  advocates  of  its  extension  into 
new  areas.  One  reason  for  their  excessive  de- 
votion to  the  institution  of  slavery  was  that 
their  form  of  agriculture  was  the  most  dependent 
upon  slave-labor.  They  understood  the  election 
of  Lincoln  to  signify  that  the  Republican  Party 
would  use  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment to  destroy  the  very  basis  upon  which  their 
wealth  and  political  influence  rested.  Although 

*  The  Constitutional  Union  Party  carried  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  and  Virginia.  The  Douglas  Democrats  carried 
Missouri  and  three  out  of  New  Jersey's  seven  electoral  votes. 


2i8  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

numbering  but  a  small  part  of  the  white  popu- 
lation of  their  section,  yet  the  political  power 
of  this  tiny  minority  was  so  great  that  it  not 
only  ruled  the  South,  but  it  had  dictated  to  the 
nation  for  many  years. 

Having  lost  control  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, the  slave  power  now  determined  to  build 
a  new  government  to  suit  itself.  It  had  enjoyed 
supreme  authority  too  long  to  be  willing  to  sur- 
render it  now. 

The  South  Atlantic  and  Gulf  States  were  con- 
vinced that  by  virtue  of  their  control  of  the  pro- 
duction of  cotton  they  had  not  only  the  North, 
but  Europe  at  their  mercy.  Said  Senator  Ham- 
mond: "  I  firmly  believe  that  the  slave-holding 
South  is  now  the  controlling  power  of  the  world; 
that  no  other  power  will  face  us  in  hostilities." 

On  December  2Oth  South  Carolina  passed  an 
ordinance  of  secession,  and  withdrew  from  the 
Union.  Within  six  weeks  Mississippi,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  fol- 
lowed. On  February  14,  1861,  these  States 
formed  a  new  government  under  the  name  of 
the  Confederate  States  of  America,  and  elected 
Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  President,  and 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  Vice-presi- 
dent. Davis  was  a  man  of  brains,  address,  self- 


SECESSION  219 

confidence,  and  indomitable  courage;  Stephens, 
an  intellectual  prodigy  of  diminutive  physical 
stature  and  feeble  health.  Montgomery,  Ala., 
was  chosen  for  the  capital. 

The  Federal  Government  in  the  meantime 
did  nothing,  for  it  was  the  policy  of  the  Bu- 
chanan administration  to  avert  war  if  possible. 
The  President  believed  that  he  had  no  right 
to  coerce  a  State.  Nearly  all  the  members 
of  his  Cabinet  were  in  open  sympathy  with 
secession. 

Fort  Sumter. — Very  soon  after  his  inaugura- 
tion President  Lincoln  sent  reinforcements  to 
Fort  Sumter  in  Charleston  harbor.  This  action 
was  taken  by  the  Confederacy  to  mean  that  the 
Federal  Government  had  decided  upon  war. 
President  Davis  ordered  General  Beauregard, 
who  was  in  command  of  the  Confederate  forces 
about  Charleston,  to  open  fire  on  the  fort. 

The  cannonading  which  began  on  the  morn- 
ing of  April  12,  1 86 1,  proclaimed  to  the  world 
that  the  greatest  civil  war  of  all  the  ages  had 
now  begun.  Major  Anderson  defended  the  fort 
with  valor,  but  his  men  were  few,  their  provi- 
sions were  exhausted,  and  it  was  impossible  to 
hold  out  long.  After  thirty-four  hours1  heroic 
resistance,  during  which  the  fort  was  reduced  to 


220  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

ruins,  Major  Anderson  surrendered,  and  the 
garrison  marched  out  with  the  honors  of  war. 

The  Call  to  Arms. — The  effect  of  the  attack 
on  Sumter  was  electrical  throughout  the  whole 
country,  North  and  South.  President  Lincoln 
called  for  seventy-five  thousand  volunteers,  and 
several  times  that  number  answered.  Party  dif- 
ferences were  forgotten  in  the  assault  upon  the 
flag,  and  the  one  supreme  peril  that  threatened 
the  Union.  President  Davis  issued  a  call  for 
thirty-five  thousand  Confederate  volunteers,  and 
the  Southern  people  responded  as  one  man  to 
repel  the  invasion  of  their  homes  by  Northern 
troops. 

Other  States  Secede.— The  area  of  secession  at 
first  included  only  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and 
the  Gulf  States.  It  would  probably  have  been 
confined  to  that  region  had  not  President  Lincoln 
forced  the  issue  upon  other  Southern  States  by 
ordering  out  their  militia  to  assist  in  putting 
down  the  Confederacy.  The  Northern  States 
cheerfully  obeyed,  but  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
Tennessee,  and  Arkansas  refused  on  the  ground 
that  the  Federal  Government  had  no  right  to 
coerce  a  sovereign  State.  Since  they  could  not 
remain  neutral,  these  States  proceeded  to  join 
the  Confederacy,  which  by  June,  1861,  num- 


SECESSION  221 

bered  eleven  States.  After  the  accession  of  Vir- 
ginia the  Confederate  capital  was  moved  from 
Montgomery  to  Richmond. 

The  people  in  the  western  part  of  Virginia 
were  not  in  sympathy  with  secession,  and  re- 
fused to  go  into  the  Confederacy.  They  formed 
a  State  government  of  their  own,  and  were  ad- 
mitted into  the  Union  in  1863  as  the  State  of 
West  Virginia. 

The  Confederacy  made  strong  efforts  to  gain 
the  four  remaining  slave  States.  But  Delaware 
contained  scarcely  any  secessionists.  Maryland, 
Kentucky,  and  Missouri  were  divided  in  their 
sympathies,  and  sent  many  brave  volunteers  into 
both  armies,  but  as  these  States  were  under  Fed- 
eral military  control  throughout  the  war  it  is 
doubtful  if  they  could  have  seceded,  even  had 
the  majority  of  the  people  been  so  inclined. 

The  Confederate  Constitution  was  very  similar 
to  that  of  the  United  States,  which  is  a  strong 
proof  that  the  Southern  people  were  really  at- 
tached to  the  institutions  of  their  fathers.  There 
were  some  points  of  difference.  The  Executive 
was  to  be  elected  for  a  term  of  six  years,  and 
was  not  to  be  eligible  for  reelection.  Members 
of  the  Cabinet  were  to  have  a  voice  in  Congress 
in  matters  which  pertained  to  their  departments. 


222  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

A  protective  tariff  was  declared  illegal,  and  the 
principle  of  State  sovereignty  was  upheld — con- 
structions for  which  the  South  had  always  con- 
tended. State  legislatures  had  power  to  impeach 
officials  of  the  Confederate  Government  acting 
within  the  State. 

The  Motive  and  the  Argument  of  Secession. — 
Although  the  slave  power  had  been  the  most 
zealous  advocate  of  disunion,  it  comprised  only 
a  small  fraction  of  the  white  population  of  the 
South.  Slavery  precipitated  the  Civil  War,  but 
it  was  not  the  fundamental  cause  of  that  terri- 
ble struggle.  There  were  few  slaves  in  North 
Carolina,  and  fewer  in  Tennessee.  These  States 
would  not  have  joined  the  Confederacy  if  sla- 
very had  been  the  vital  issue.  The  Confederate 
Constitution  expressly  forbade  the  reopening  of 
the  African  slave-trade.  Mr.  Davis  and  other 
leaders  declared  that  slavery  would  not  last 
forever.  The  magnificent  popular  enthusiasm, 
which  swept  and  surged  like  a  tidal  wave  over 
North  and  South  for  four  long  and  bloody  years, 
was  not  excited  either  by  the  desire  of  the  North 
to  free  the  negro  or  of  the  South  to  perpetuate 
his  servitude.  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  inaugural  ad- 
dress expressly  denied  that  he  had  either  the 
intention  or  the  lawful  right  to  interfere  with 


SECESSION  223 

slavery  in  the  States  where  it  already  existed,  and 
said  nothing  about  putting  an  end  to  it  in  the 
territories,  upon  which  his  party  had  insisted. 
He  even  went  so  far  as  to  advocate  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  making  slavery  per- 
petual; not  because  he  approved  of  the  institu- 
tion, but  because  he  was  willing  to  do  anything 
to  save  the  Union.  At  the  same  time  he  let  the 
South  understand  that  the  Federal  Government 
would  resist  secession,  by  force  if  necessary. 

To  discover  the  real  and  underlying  cause  of 
the  Civil  War  we  must  look  elsewhere  than  to 
slavery.  We  must  remember  that  the  South 
had  always  held  to  the  conviction  that  the  States 
were  superior  to  the  nation ;  the  nation  was  the 
creature  of  the  States,  it  came  into  existence  by 
their  will,  and  how  could  the  thing  that  was 
created  be  superior  to  its  creator?  And  if  the 
nation  was  inferior  to  the  State,  then  the  Con- 
stitution, which  was  the  law  of  the  nation,  could 
not  be  taken  as  the  measure  of  State  rights.  Ac- 
cording to  this  view,  if  a  State  decided  that  it 
would  be  better  off  out  of  the  Union  than  in  it, 
it  had  a  perfect  right  to  withdraw. 

This  was  the  principle  for  which  the  Revolu- 
tionary fathers  had  contended,  and  which  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  had  asserted.  The 


224  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

same  view  had  prevailed  in  the  North  itself  up 
to  1860.  The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  in 
1802  threatened  to  secede  if  the  Jefferson  ad- 
ministration should  purchase  Louisiana.  A  con- 
vention of  the  New  England  States,  meeting  in 
Hartford  in  1814  to  oppose  the  war  with  Eng- 
land, had  proposed  secession  because  they  could 
not  have  their  own  way  in  national  affairs.  New 
York,  Rhode  Island,  and  Virginia  came  into  the 
Union  on  the  express  condition  that  they  could 
withdraw  whenever  they  might  choose  to  do  so. 
The  abolitionists  constantly  advocated  the  seces- 
sion of  the  free  States  rather  than  live  under  a 
flag  which  sanctioned  the  curse  of  slavery. 

But  gradually  the  great  mass  of  Northern 
people  had  become  converted  to  the  national 
ideal  expressed  in  Jackson's  fiery  challenge, 
"  The  Union,  it  must  and  shall  be  preserved." 
The  thrilling  peroration  of  Webster's  reply  to 
Hayne,  "  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever, 
one  and  Inseparable"  had  been  recited  in  every 
school-house  in  the  North.  Their  appeal  to  the 
popular  heart  had  roused  the  sentiment  of 
patriotism  and  given  birth  to  the  pride  of  na- 
tionality. When  the  stars  and  stripes  fell  from 
the  bastions  of  Sumter  thousands  of  Northern 
men  rushed  to  the  defence  of  the  Union,  which 


SECESSION  225 

the  eloquence  of  Webster  and  the  example  of 
Jackson  had  taught  them  to  love  and  reverence. 
In  the  South  the  warlike  preparations  of  the 
Government  were  regarded  as  the  expression  of 
a  tyrannical  purpose  to  invade  the  homes  and 
destroy  the  liberties  of  a  free  people.  They 
could  not  see  why  they  had  not  as  clear  a  right 
to  withdraw  from  the  Federal  Union  as  the 
colonies  had  to  withdraw  from  the  Empire  of 
Great  Britain  in  1776.  When  the  Federal 
troops  marched  into  the  South  these  people  were 
compelled  to  choose  between  their  State — to 
which  they  had  always  been  taught  that  their 
allegiance  was  first  due — and  the  nation,  which 
represented  to  them  only  an  enemy.  The  men 
who  filled  the  Confederate  armies  were  no  less 
patriots  than  the  soldiers  of  the  Union.  It  was 
a  difference  between  patriotism  to  the  State  and 
patriotism  to  the  nation.  The  North  fought  for 
federal  government,  the  South  for  local  gov- 
ernment; the  North  to  preserve  the  Union,  the 
South  to  defend  its  homes.  Slavery  simply  hap- 
pened to  be  the  concrete  issue  over  which  these 
two  hostile  theories  came  into  collision. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

THE  CIVIL  WAR,    1861-65 

THE   probabilities  were    from  the   start 
strongly   against   the   success    of   the 
Confederacy.      The    heroism    of    its 
people  could  not  be  surpassed,  but  the  South 
was  sadly  lacking  in  those  resources  of  wealth 
and  industry  without  which  no  war  can  long  be 
sustained  by  any  people,  however  determined. 

The  Belligerents  Compared. — The  Confederacy 
numbered  eleven  States,  with  a  white  population 
of  less  than  five  and  a  half  millions.  It  had  few 
railroads  or  ships,  and  no  manufactures  of  any 
sort.  Slavery  had  confined  the  South  to  the 
single  pursuit  of  agriculture,  and  had  prevented 
the  development  of  other  industries.  With  the 
exception  of  plantation  products,  it  was  depend- 
ent upon  the  Northern  States  and  upon  Europe 
for  everything  it  used  or  needed. 

The  North,  on  the  contrary,  had  plenty  of 
money,  a  flourishing  foreign  commerce,  and  in- 
dustries of  every  kind,  which  made  it  self-sup- 
226 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  227 

porting  and  independent  of  the  rest  of  the 
world.  It  had  numerous  railroads  for  the  trans- 
portation of  troops  and  supplies.  With  its  pop- 
ulation of  twenty-two  millions  it  could  put 
immense  armies  in  the  field  without  draining 
shops,  factories,  or  farms  of  necessary  hands. 

The  Federal  Plan  of  War. — The  military  and 
naval  plan  of  campaign  acted  upon  by  the  Fed- 
eral Government  throughout  the  war  was  this: 
First,  to  surround  the  Confederacy  with  armies 
and  navies  and  attack  it  on  all  sides ;  second,  to 
starve  it  into  submission  by  a  close  blockade  of 
the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coasts,  which  would  shut 
it  off  from  the  markets  of  Europe. 

The  operations  of  the  war  covered  an  im- 
mense area — from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
Mississippi  River,  from  the  Border  States  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico — but  most  of  the  fighting  took 
place  in  Virginia. 

Confederate  Victories  in  the  East — Neither  side 
at  first  appreciated  or  understood  the  heroism 
and  determination  of  the  other.  The  general 
opinion  of  the  North  was  that  the  "  rebellion  " 
would  be  over  in  a  few  weeks.  Southern  orators 
boasted  that  one  Confederate  could  whip  ten 
"  Yankees."  Few  realized  how  vast  the  forces, 
how  terrible  the  cost,  how  tragic  the  consequences 


228  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

would  be.  Even  the  gallant  thousands  who 
marched  to  the  stirring  strains  of  "  John 
Brown's  Body  "  or  "  Dixie  "  could  not  foresee 
the  desperate  trial  of  blood  and  battle. 

Bull  Run.— In  the  east,  the  Federal  design 
was  to  capture  Richmond,  the  Confederate  capi- 
tal. The  eastern  campaign  centred  mainly  in 
Virginia,  and  until  1863  the  Confederates  were 
generally  successful. 

The  first  important  battle  of  the  war  oc- 
curred near  the  city  of  Washington,  at  Manas- 
sas,  or  Bull  Run,  July  21,  1861.*  General 
McDowell,  the  Union  commander,  was  ordered 
to  proceed  against  Richmond.  His  army  was 
composed  for  the  greater  part  of  raw  recruits 
who  had  never  been  under  fire.  About  thirty- 
five  miles  from  Washington  he  was  met  by  a 
Confederate  force  under  Generals  Beauregard 
and  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  utterly  routed  the 
Union  Army  and  sent  it  flying  back  to  Wash- 
ington. 

McClellan  and  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. — The 
disaster  at  Bull  Run  aroused  the  over-confident 


*  The  hostile  armies  often  called  the  battles  of  the  Civil 
War  by  different  names.  Bull  Run  is  the  name  of  a  creek 
that  flowed  near  the  battle-field;  Manassas  is  the  name  of  the 
railroad  station. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  229 

North  to  the  seriousness  of  the  war.  General 
George  B.  McClellan  was  appointed  to  the  chief 
command  of  the  army.  He  had  been  successful 
in  driving  the  Confederates  out  of  West  Vir- 
ginia, and  great  things  were  expected  of  him. 

The  winter  of  1861-62  was  spent  by  McClel- 
lan in  organizing  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  In 
a  few  months  he  had  completely  transformed 
the  untrained  recruits  into  a  magnificent  army 
of  two  hundred  thousand  men.  The  difficulties 
of  his  task  were  enormous,  and  his  services  to 
the  Union  incalculable.  The  people,  the  news- 
papers, and  the  Government  criticised  him  be- 
cause he  did  not  fight  immediately.  They  failed 
to  realize  the  impossibility  of  using  to  advan- 
tage a  mass  of  inexperienced,  undisciplined  men. 
The  administration  never  gave  him  a  free  hand, 
and  he  was  constantly  embarrassed  by  the  med- 
dlesome interference  of  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  the 
Secretary  of  War. 

Failure  of  the  Movement  Against  Richmond. — 
In  the  spring  of  1862  McClellan  was  ordered 
to  move  against  Richmond.  The  army  was 
transported  by  water  to  Fortress  Monroe,  from 
whence  it  was  to  proceed  up  the  peninsula  to 
the  Confederate  capital.  McClellan  was  con- 
fronted by  two  of  the  ablest  generals  of  the  Con- 


230  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

federacy,  Joseph  E.  Johnston  and  "  Stonewall " 
Jackson.*  At  the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks,  or  Seven 
Pines,  the  Union  forces  retrieved  the  disaster  of 
Bull  Run  by  scoring  their  first  victory.  General 
Johnston  was  wounded,  and  forced  for  a  time 
to  leave  the  service.  He  was  succeeded  in  the 
command  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  by 
Robert  E.  Lee,  the  greatest  of  all  the  Confed- 
erate generals,  and  the  most  chivalrous  figure  in 
the  history  of  the  South;  a  character  of  tran- 
scendent purity  and  worth  in  whom  neither 
friend  nor  foe  has  ever  found  a  flaw.f 

The  military  skill  of  Lee  proved  too  great  for 
his  antagonist.  McClellan  got  within  four  miles 
of  Richmond,  but  in  the  Seven  Days'  Battles  the 
Union  Army  was  defeated.  McClellan  was  re- 
moved, and  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was 

*  Called  "Stonewall"  because  of  the  rocklike  manner  in 
which  he  held  at  bay  a  Federal  force  at  the  first  battle  of 
Bull  Run. 

f  General  Lee  was  born  in  Virginia  in  1807.  He  was  the 
son  of  "Light-horse  Harry"  Lee  of  Revolutionary  fame. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  Robert  E.  Lee  was  con- 
sidered the  ablest  officer  in  the  United  States  Army,  and  was 
offered  the  chief  command  of  the  Union  forces.  Lee  was 
one  of  the  many  Southerners  who  did  not  approve  of  secession 
as  a  policy,  but  when  Virginia  joined  the  Confederacy  he 
considered  it  his  duty  to  follow  the  lead  of  his  State.  The 
worth  of  his  name  alone  to  the  Southern  cause  was  beyond 
computation. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  231 

placed  under  the  command  of  General  John 
Pope,  who  had  made  a  reputation  in  the  western 
campaign.  But  at  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run 
(August  26,  1862)  Pope  was  so  badly  worsted 
by  Stonewall  Jackson  that  McClellan  was  rein- 
stated. 

The  Merrimac  and  the  Monitor. — All  the  im- 
portant battles  of  the  Civil  War  occurred  on 
the  land.  The  navy  rendered  able  assistance  to 
the  Union  cause,  but  its  services  were  chiefly 
valuable  in  enforcing  the  blockade  of  Southern 
ports.  One  naval  engagement,  however,  is  of 
particular  interest;  not  because  it  affected  the 
outcome  of  the  struggle  between  North  and 
South,  but  on  account  of  the  great  change  it 
wrought  in  methods  of  naval  warfare  through- 
out the  world.  It  took  place  just  before  McClel- 
lan undertook  the  Peninsular  Campaign. 

The  United  States  Navy  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War  consisted  entirely  of  wooden  ships. 
In  1 86 1  the  Confederates  raised  the  hulk  of  the 
Merrimac,  a  Federal  steamship  that  had  been 
sunk  off  Norfolk,  and  covered  it  with  an  iron 
sheath. 

On  March  8,  1862,  the  Merrimac,  armed 
with  fifteen  guns,  steamed  out  to  Hamp- 
ton Roads,  where  several  of  the  finest  United 


232  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

States  war-ships  were  anchored.  The  Congress, 
a  fifty-gun  frigate,  and  the  Cumberland,  a 
lighter  vessel,  carrying  thirty  guns,  aided  by  the 
Federal  batteries,  trained  their  heaviest  fire  upon 
the  Merrimac.  But  the  missiles  rebounded  from 
her  iron  roof  like  rubber.  Waiting  until  she  got 
within  easy  range,  the  Merrimac  poured  a  vol- 
ley into  both  vessels,  then,  driving  her  iron  prow 
with  terrific  force  against  the  side  of  the  Cum- 
berland,  sent  that  unfortunate  craft  to  the 
bottom  with  all  her  crew.  The  Congress 
continued  to  fight  until  obliged  to  surren- 
der, when  she  was  burned  by  the  crew  of  the 
Merrimac.  The  iron-clad  then  retired,  expect- 
ing to  return  the  next  day  and  finish  the  remain- 
ing ships. 

The  news  was  flashed  over  the  wires  and  set 
the  North  in  a  panic.  It  looked  as  though  the 
blockade  would  now  be  broken  and  Northern 
coast  cities  ravaged,  for  no  wooden  vessel  could 
stand  before  the  Merrimac.  But  the  terror  of 
the  North  was  short-lived.  When  the  Merri- 
mac returned  the  next  morning  to  complete  the 
destruction  begun  the  day  before  she  found  a 
strange  craft  awaiting  her.  It  consisted  of  noth- 
ing more  than  a  flat  iron  deck,  almost  flush  with 
the  water,  upon  which  was  a  revolving  iron  turret 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  233 

with  two  guns.*  The  little  Monitor  proceeded 
to  engage  the  Merrtmac  in  a  duel  which  lasted 
five  hours.  Neither  one  could  make  any  impres- 
sion upon  the  iron  armor  of  its  adversary, 
though  they  fought  most  desperately  at  a  dis- 
tance of  only  a  few  feet.  But  the  Merrtmac 
had  met  her  match,  and  finally  gave  up  the 
struggle  and  withdrew. 

The  duel  of  the  iron-clads  proved  that  the  day 
of  wooden  war-ships  was  past.  The  United 
States  remodelled  its  navy,  and  the  European 
nations,  quick  to  seize  a  new  advantage,  fol- 
lowed. The  iron  navies  of  the  world  to-day 
trace  their  origin  to  the  battle  between  the 
Merrimac  and  the  Monitor  in  the  American 
Civil  War. 

Antietam. — General  Lee  decided  to  carry  the 
war  into  Federal  territory  and  attempt  the  capt- 
ure of  Washington.  He  believed  that  South- 
ern sympathy  in  Maryland  was  strong  enough 
to  wrest  that  State  from  the  control  of  the 

*  When  the  Government  at  Washington  learned  that  the 
Confederates  were  building  the  Merrimac  it  made  a  contract 
with  John  Ericsson,  a  Swedish  inventor  in  New  York,  to 
build  an  iron-clad.  The  two  vessels  were  finished  almost  at 
the  same  moment.  The  Monitor  was  at  once  ordered  to 
Hampton  Roads,  but  having  a  greater  distance  to  go,  arrived 
several  hours  after  the  Merrimac. 


234  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Union  men  if  the  Southern  sympathizers  should 
be  encouraged  by  the  presence  of  Confederate 
troops. 

The  disastrous  battle  of  Antietam,  or  Sharps- 
burg,  followed  the  attempt  of  Lee  to  invade 
the  loyal  States.  It  was  one  of  the  blood- 
iest engagements  of  the  war.  Despite  the  fact 
that  McClelland  army  greatly  outnumbered 
Lee's,  the  battle  was  indecisive,  though  the  ad- 
vantage lay  with  McClellan,  since  Lee  was 
forced  for  the  time  being  to  abandon  the  in- 
vasion of  the  North.  McClellan  was  again  re- 
moved, and  Ambrose  E.  Burnside  appointed  in 
his  place. 

Before  taking  leave  of  General  McClellan 
it  is  only  fair  to  say  of  him  that  no  other  Union 
general  was  beset  by  so  many  discouraging  dif- 
ficulties. Several  years  after  the  war  was  over, 
General  Lee,  who  ranks  among  the  greatest 
masters  of  military  science  that  the  world  has 
ever  produced,  was  asked  which  of  all  his  late 
opponents  he  considered  the  ablest.  "  McClel- 
lan," replied  Lee,  "  by  all  odds."  * 

General  Grant's  opinion  of  the  first  com- 
mander of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  thus 

*  Recollections  and  Letters  of  General  Lee,  by  Captain 
Robert  E.  Lee,  New  York,  1904,  p.  416. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  235 

expressed:  "The  test  applied  to  him  would  be 
terrible  to  any  man,  being  made  a  major-gen- 
eral at  the  beginning  of  the  war  .  .  .  and  if  he 
did  not  succeed,  it  was  because  the  conditions  of 
success  were  so  trying.  If  McClellan  had  gone 
into  the  war  as  Sherman,  Thomas,  or  Meade — 
had  fought  his  way  along  and  up — I  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  he  would  not  have  won 
as  high  distinction  as  any  of  us."  * 

Emancipation. — In  the  spring  and  summer  of 
1862  Congress  passed  three  emancipation  acts, 
liberating  all  slaves  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
and  in  the  territories,  and  all  Confederate  slaves 
who  escaped  to  the  Federal  lines.  Just  after 
the  battle  of  Antietam  President  Lincoln  issued 
his  famous  Proclamation,  warning  the  people  of 
the  Confederacy  that  unless  they  returned  to 
the  Union  by  the  first  day  of  January,  1863,  he 
would  declare  their  remaining  slaves  free. 

The  President  had  long  been  urged  by  the  ex- 
treme abolitionists  to  destroy  slavery.  But  Lin- 
coln, though  opposed  to  slavery  in  principle,  had 
no  desire  to  give  the  civil  struggle  in  which  he 
was  engaged  the  appearance  of  a  war  in  behalf 
of  the  negro.  At  the  outset  he  had  even  been 

*  Around  the  World  with  General  Grant,  by  John 
Russell  Young,  vol.  ii,  p.  216. 


236  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

willing  to  make  almost  any  concession  which  the 
slave  interest  of  the  South  might  demand  in 
order  to  prevent  disunion.  His  attitude  had 
likewise  been  the  attitude  of  the  great  majority 
of  Northern  people.  But  the  President  and 
other  thinking  men  had  come  to  realize  that 
even  if  the  Union  cause  should  prevail,  slavery, 
which  had  been  so  prominent  a  factor  in  pro- 
ducing and  perpetuating  sectional  bitterness, 
would  ultimately  have  to  be  destroyed.  More- 
over, Europe  was  chafing  under  the  blockade, 
and  it  was  thought  that  the  destruction  of  sla- 
very would  appeal  to  the  moral  sense  of  foreign 
nations  and  prevent  recognition  of  the  Confed- 
eracy, which  the  Confederate  Government  was 
actively  seeking. 

These  motives,  however,  could  not  have  justi- 
fied so  sweeping  an  executive  act  as  the  destruc- 
tion of  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  private 
property  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution.  Nor 
is  it  likely  that  the  President  would  have  adopted 
such  a  policy  on  those  grounds  alone.  But  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  not  only  President  of  the  United 
States;  by  the  Constitution  he  was  also  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy.  In  that 
capacity  he  possessed  certain  powers  which  as  a 
mere  civil  ruler  he  could  not  have  exercised. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  237 

Now  the  slaves  were  the  property  of  the  enemy. 
Their  labor  was  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of 
the  Confederate  armies.  They  raised  and  har- 
vested the  crops  which  supported  the  soldiers  in 
the  field.  To  set  them  free  would  go  a  long 
way  toward  disabling  the  Confederacy.  As  a 
measure  of  military  necessity,  therefore,  Lincoln 
decided  to  liberate  the  slaves. 

No  Confederate  State  returning  to  the  Union, 
the  Proclamation  became  operative  January  I, 
1863.  It  had  no  practical  effect  except  when 
enforced  by  the  armies,  but  as  fast  as  Southern 
territory  came  under  Federal  control,  slave-hold- 
ers were  compelled  to  surrender  their  negroes. 
Many  Southerners  of  their  own  accord  liberated 
their  slaves  after  January  ist,  among  them  Gen- 
eral Lee  himself. 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  showing  the  friendly 
ties  that  bound  the  master  and  his  bondman, 
that  many  negroes  refused  to  avail  themselves 
of  their  freedom,  but  chose  to  remain  with 
those  whom  they  had  so  long  been  accustomed 
to  serve.  The  truth  is  that  the  slave  was  not, 
in  the  vast  majority  of  instances,  the  discon- 
tented and  pathetic  figure  he  is  commonly  be- 
lieved to  have  been.  The  number  of  those  who 
enlisted  in  the  Union  armies  was  not  large,  con- 


238  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

sidering  the  inducements  offered.  Many  ser- 
vants accompanied  their  masters  to  the  scenes 
of  war,  and  their  devotion  is  a  fact  of  univer- 
sal familiarity.  All  through  the  war  the  care 
of  wife,  children,  and  home  was  intrusted  to 
the  slave — a  trust  that  was  never  betrayed. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation  did  not 
apply  to  the  border  slave  States  which  had  re- 
mained in  the  Union.  Such  a  measure  might 
at  that  time  have  driven  them  into  the  Confed- 
eracy. Maryland  and  Missouri  of  their  own 
accord  abolished  slavery  by  State  action  before 
the  war  was  over.  In  Delaware  and  Kentucky 
it  continued  to  exist  until  1865,  when  the 
Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution 
destroyed  it  forever  throughout  the  United 
States. 

Fredericksburg  and  Chancellorsville. — The  chief 
fault  found  with  McClellan  was  that  he  did 
not  do  enough  fighting.  General  Burnside  de- 
termined to  be  more  aggressive,  and  to  silence 
criticism  at  once  by  taking  Richmond.  But  at 
the  battle  of  Fredericksburg  (December  13, 
1862)  the  persistent  Army  of  the  Potomac  was 
again  defeated  by  Lee.  Burnside  was  removed, 
and  his  command  given  to  General  Joseph 
Hooker.  Now  at  last,  thought  the  North,  a 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  239 

man  has  been  found  who  will  take  Richmond 
and  end  the  war. 

Again  failure  mocked  the  heroic  efforts  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  The  Union  forces, 
numbering  ninety  thousand,  encountered  forty- 
five  thousand  Confederates  at  Chancellorsville 
on  May  2,  1863.  For  two  days  the  veterans  of 
Hooker  challenged  the  desperate  valor  of  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  But  the  tactics  of 
Hooker  proved  no  match  for  the  superb  gen- 
eralship of  Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson.  Chan- 
cellorsville added  one  more  defeat  to  the  dis- 
couraging record  of  Federal  failures  in  the 
East. 

But  the  Confederacy  paid  a  dear  price  for 
its  victory.  Among  the  heroic  Southern  slain 
was  Stonewall  Jackson.  While  reconnoitring 
the  Federal  position  at  some  distance  from  his 
troops,  he  and  his  escorts  were  mistaken  by  the 
Confederates  for  a  body  of  Federal  cavalry. 
The  error  was  not  discovered  until  too  late. 
Jackson  ranked  with  Lee  as  a  master  of  war, 
and  his  death  was  an  irreparable  loss  to  the 
Southern  cause.  He  is  said  by  military  critics 
to  have  more  nearly  resembled  Napoleon  in 
genius  and  method  than  any  other  American 
commander. 


240  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Union  Victories  in  the  West. — If  failure  marked 
the  course  of  the  Union  armies  in  the  East, 
Union  success  had  been  almost  uninterrupted  in 
the  West. 

The  Federal  object  was  to  get  control  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  which  divided  the  west- 
ern half  of  the  Confederacy  into  two  parts, 
and  which  on  account  of  its  productiveness  was 
the  main  granary  of  the  Confederate  armies. 
A  few  railroad  lines  connected  Vicksburg,  Mem- 
phis, Chattanooga,  and  Nashville,  the  chief 
towns  of  the  Western  Confederacy,  with  Rich- 
mond and  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  Con- 
federate line  of  defence  was  strengthened  by 
fortifications  on  the  Cumberland,  the  Tennessee, 
and  the  Mississippi  rivers.  The  important 
points  were  to  be  attacked  by  armies  moving 
down  from  the  north  with  the  cooperation  of 
fleets,  which  were  to  take  New  Orleans  and  as- 
cend the  Mississippi. 

There  was  not  very  much  fighting  in  the  West 
until  1862.  The  summer  and  fall  of  1861  saw 
the  Confederates  driven  out  of  Missouri,  and 
Kentucky  saved  to  the  Union. 

When  the  campaign  of  1862  opened  there 
were  two  Union  armies  in  the  West,  which 
shortly  increased  to  four.  The  larger  one  num- 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  241 

bered  one  hundred  thousand  men,  and  was  com- 
manded by  General  Buell.  A  subordinate  force 
of  fifteen  thousand  under  Ulysses  S.  Grant  was 
stationed  at  Cairo,  111. 

The  Confederate  armies  of  the  West  were 
under  the  command  of  Albert  Sidney  Johnston. 
The  South  expected  much  from  this  officer,  who 
was  recognized  in  military  circles,  North  and 
South,  as  possessing  extraordinary  abilities,  and 
who  was  considered  by  some,  in  these  early  days 
of  the  war,  to  be  superior  even  to  Lee. 

Forts  Henry  and  Donelson  and  Island  No.  10. — 
In  February,  1862,  General  Grant  took  Fort 
Henry  on  the  Tennessee,  and  ten  days  later  re- 
ceived the  surrender  of  Fort  Donelson,  which 
guarded  the  Cumberland.  These  victories  gave 
the  United  States  forces  control  of  two  of  the 
principal  water-ways  of  the  South-west.  The 
capture  of  Island  No.  10  on  the  Mississippi  by 
General  Pope  and  the  gun-boat  fleet  under  Com- 
modore Foote  followed  in  April,  and  the  Con- 
federates were  forced  to  form  a  new  line  of 
defence. 

Pittsburg  Landing. — General  Grant  pressed  on 
and  camped  at  Pittsburg  Landing  on  the  Ten- 
nessee. Here  he  was  attacked  on  the  morn- 
ing of  April  6th  by  Albert  Sidney  Johnston.  A 


242  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

furious  engagement  ensued,  which  lasted  two 
days.  At  first  victory  was  with  the  Confeder- 
ates, but  Grant  was  reenforced  by  Buell's  army, 
and  further  aided  by  the  gun-boats  on  the  river. 
Johnston  was  killed,  and  a  Union  victory  was 
the  result.  When  Jefferson  Davis  heard  of 
Johnston's  death  he  endured  a  temporary  spasm 
of  despair. 

The  battle  of  Pittsburg  Landing  is  often 
called  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  after  a  church  around 
which  the  heaviest  fighting  occurred. 

The  Capture  of  New  Orleans.— On  April  25th 
Admiral  Farragut's  Gulf  fleet,  aided  by  a  land 
force  under  General  B.  F.  Butler,  took  the  city 
of  New  Orleans  and  its  surrounding  forts. 
This  was  a  most  important  achievement,  since 
it  put  an  end  to  Confederate  control  of  the  lower 
Mississippi.  Two  principal  railroad  centres, 
Corinth  and  Memphis,  soon  passed  into  Fed- 
eral hands.  With  the  exception  of  Vicksburg 
and  Port  Hudson,  the  Mississippi  River  was 
now  under  Federal  control  from  New  Orleans 
to  Illinois. 

Vicksburg  was  besieged  by  General  Grant  in 
the  spring  of  1863.  Joseph  E.  Johnston  was 
now  in  command  of  all  the  Confederate  forces 
of  the  South-west.  His  intention  was  to  fight 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  243 

Grant  in  the  open  field,  and  thus  avoid  a  siege, 
which  he  knew  Vicksburg  would  be  unable  to 
resist.  But  General  Pemberton,  who  was  in 
command  at  Vicksburg,  disobeyed  his  orders 
and  decided  to  stand  a  siege.  General  Grant 
succeeded  in  dividing  the  forces  of  Johnston 
and  Pemberton,  so  that  neither  one  could  help 
the  other.  After  six  weeks,  during  which  the 
Federal  gun-boats  on  the  river  kept  up  a  terrific 
bombardment  of  the  city,  Vicksburg  was  blown 
up  by  powder-mines  which  Grant  had  caused 
to  be  constructed  beneath  the  fortifications  of 
the  city.  On  July  4th  its  defenders  surrendered 
to  General  Grant.  Five  days  later  Port  Hudson 
fell. 

The  whole  Mississippi  Valley,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Chattanooga,  was  now  under  Federal 
control.  The  Confederacy  was  cut  in  twain.  It 
was  no  longer  possible  to  bring  Western  cattle 
and  grain  to  feed  the  Confederate  armies  in  the 
East.  From  now  on  each  half  of  the  Confed- 
eracy must  fight  without  help  from  the  other. 

Gettysburg.— We  left  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac broken  by  the  defeat  at  Chancellorsville, 
and  the  Confederates  on  the  high  tide  of  suc- 
cess. 

On  the  day  before   the    fall   of  Vicksburg 


244  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  suffered  its  first 
great  reverse.  Public  opinion  at  the  South, 
elated  by  victory^  demanded  an  invasion  of  the 
North.  General  Lee  decided  to  carry  the  war 
into  Pennsylvania.  The  invasion  caused  great 
alarm  in  the  North.  Lee  came  up  through 
Maryland  to  Chambersburg  with  his  main  army. 
Detached  commands  held  York  and  Carlisle,  and 
came  within  a  few  miles  of  Harrisburg.  From 
Chambersburg  Lee  turned  east  to  attack  Phila- 
delphia. General  Hooker  had  been  succeeded 
by  General  George  G.  Meade,  a  commander  of 
great  ability.  Meade  moved  up  between  Lee 
and  the  threatened  city  of  Philadelphia.  The 
two  armies  met  at  Gettysburg.  Here,  on  July 
ist,  2d,  and  3d  was  fought  not  only  the  decisive 
battle  of  the  war,  but  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
battles  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Deeds  of 
amazing  heroism  were  performed  by  both 
armies,  but  Meade  had  the  advantage  of  larger 
forces  and  superior  position.  Moreover,  certain 
vital  orders  of  Lee  were  tardily  executed.  When 
the  sun  set  at  the  close  of  the  third  day  it  sym- 
bolized the  wane  of  Confederate  fortune. 

The  repulse  of  Lee's  invasion  and  the  fall  of 
Vicksburg  marked  the  turning-point  of  the  war. 

From  Gettysburg  Lee  retreated  to  Virginia, 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  245 

slowly  followed  by  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
The  two  forces  took  position  on  opposite  banks 
of  the  Rapidan  River.  Here  they  remained 
through  the  following  winter  without  much 
fighting  until  the  spring  of  1864,  when  Grant 
took  command  of  all  the  armies  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  life-and-death  struggle  began. 

Chickamauga. — After  the  fall  of  Vicksburg 
there  still  remained  in  Confederate  possession 
eastern  Tennessee  and  Georgia. 

At  Chickamauga,  a  few  miles  from  the  city 
of  Chattanooga,  the  Confederates  were  attacked 
by  General  Rosecrans  on  September  19,  1863. 
After  one  of  the  most  desperate  battles  of  the 
war,  lasting  two  days,  the  Union  Army  was  de- 
feated. It  would  have  been  utterly  routed  had 
it  not  been  for  the  heroic  stand  of  General 
George  H.  Thomas,  whose  command  covered 
the  retreat  of  the  fleeing  army.  For  this  achieve- 
ment General  Thomas  won  the  sobriquet  of 
"  the  Rock  of  Chickamauga. " 

Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary  Ridge. — 
The  Union  Army  retreated  to  Chattanooga, 
where  it  was  besieged  for  two  months  by  the 
Confederates.  All  eyes  were  turned  to  General 
Grant,  the  hero  of  Vicksburg,  who  had  been 
placed  in  command  of  all  the  Federal  armies  of 


246  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  West,  and  who  now  came  to  the  relief  of 
Chattanooga.  The  Confederates  were  strongly 
intrenched  on  Lookout  Mountain  and  Mission- 
ary Ridge.  By  sudden  and  heroic  assault  up 
the  mountain-side  the  Union  soldiers  succeeded 
in  carrying  both  of  these  apparently  impregnable 
positions.  Part  of  the  fighting  occurred  so  high 
up  that  the  combatants  were  hidden  by  the 
clouds,  so  that  the  engagement  at  Lookout 
Mountain  is  often  called  "  the  battle  above  the 
clouds." 

The  victory  at  Chattanooga  (November 
24th-25th)  completed  the  Union  conquest  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley. 

The  Blockade. — Far  more  effective  than  the 
work  of  Northern  armies  in  crushing  the  Con- 
federacy was  the  blockade. 

"  Cotton  is  king,"  boasted  the  South  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  meaning  that  its  staple 
product  ruled  the  industrial  world.  The  South 
believed  in  1861  that  the  Federal  Government 
could  not  continue  the  war  without  the  support 
of  the  industrial  interests  of  the  North,  and  that 
this  support  would  not  be  given  when  the  manu- 
facturers and  the  merchants  found  that  they 
were  unable  to  procure  cotton.  It  also  be- 
lieved the  forced  interruption  of  foreign  trade 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  247 

would  cause  such  loss  abroad  that  European 
governments  would  compel  the  United  States  to 
raise  the  blockade. 

In  both  of  these  anticipations  the  South  was 
doomed  to  disappointment.  The  cotton  manu- 
facturers were  only  a  fraction  of  the  industrial 
interests  of  the  North.  In  spite  of  their  in- 
juries, the  Federal  Government  never  slackened 
its  efforts  to  compel  the  submission  of  the  South. 
Neither  did  Europe  intervene,  though  incon- 
venienced by  the  blockade.  The  truth  was,  that 
badly  as  Europe  needed  Southern  cotton,  the 
South  needed  European  markets  still  more.  Eu- 
rope could  exist  without  the  South,  but  the 
South  could  not  exist  without  Europe.  Only 
from  Europe  could  military  arms,  clothing,  and 
other  necessaries  be  procured. 

Within  three  months  after  the  outbreak  of 
war  the  Confederacy  was  surrounded  by  fleets 
and  armies  which  pressed  closer  and  closer  until 
the  power  of  resistance  was  utterly  destroyed. 

To  evade  the  blockade,  small  and  very  swift 
vessels  were  built  in  Europe  to  carry  military 
stores  and  other  cargoes  to  Confederate  ports 
in  exchange  for  cotton.  But  as  the  war  pro- 
ceeded it  became  increasingly  difficult  to  escape 
the  vigilant  United  States  cruisers.  Trade  of 


248  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

this  sort  amounted  to  very  little.  Before  the 
war  was  over  cotton  was  worth  $2.50  a  pound 
in  Liverpool,  while  vast  mountains  of  it  rotted 
on  the  wharves  of  Southern  ports  at  four  cents 
a  pound.  Salt,  which  was  worth  $7.50  a  ton  in 
Nassau,  the  capital  of  the  Bahamas  and  the 
nearest  port  for  blockade  runners,  sold  for 
$1,700  in  gold  at  Richmond.  Supplies  of 
every  sort  became  exhausted,  and  there  was  no 
way  to  replenish  them.  The  spinning-wheels 
of  farm  and  plantation  were  kept  constantly 
at  work  turning  out  rough  homespun  clothing 
for  the  soldiers.  Women  of  high  social  rank 
suffered  the  stress  of  poverty.  Roasted  rye 
took  the  place  of  coffee,  persimmon  seeds  were 
utilized  for  buttons  and  thorns  for  pins. 

It  was  the  blockade,  not  the  armies  of  the 
North,  that  killed  the  Confederacy.  Had  the 
South  had  access  to  foreign  markets  it  could 
never,  in  all  probability,  have  been  conquered. 

Confederate  Finance. — An  irredeemable  paper 
currency  made  bad  matters  very  much  worse. 
All  paper  money  is  merely  a  promise  to  pay  an 
equal  amount  of  gold  or  silver  on  demand  of 
the  bearer.  It  is  good  only  as  long  as  it  can 
be  redeemed  in  standard  coin.  The  entire 
specie  revenue  of  the  Confederate  Government 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  249 

during  its  four  years'  existence  aggregated  only 
about  $28,000,000.  The  Government  was 
therefore  obliged  to  rely  more  and  more  upon 
paper  money,  which  dropped  in  value  as  the 
chances  of  Confederate  success  grew  weaker. 

The  scarcity  of  goods  of  every  description 
and  the  cheapness  of  money  combined  to  make 
fabulous  prices.  Before  the  war  was  over  one 
dollar  in  gold  was  worth  one  hundred  dollars 
of  paper  money.  Corn-meal  sold  for  $80  a 
bushel,  a  barrel  of  flour  cost  $1,000,  a  spool 
of  thread  $20,  a  pound  of  sugar  $75,  and  a 
newspaper  $i. 

The  Beginning  of  the  Final  Struggle. — In  the 
spring  of  1864  General  Grant,  whose  victories 
had  made  him  the  most  celebrated  of  all  the 
Union  commanders,  was  made  Lieutenant  Gen- 
eral of  the  Armies  of  the  United  States,  in  the 
hope  that  with  a  free  hand  and  full  power  he 
would  be  able  to  end  the  war. 

There  were  now  only  two  large  Confederate 
armies  in  the  field;  the  Army  of  Northern  Vir- 
ginia, which  we  left  in  winter  quarters  on  the 
Rapidan,  and  the  Southern  Army  under  Joseph 
E.  Johnston  in  Georgia. 

Grant's  plan  was  to  attack  both  armies  si- 
multaneously and  keep  them  so  busy  that  neither 


250  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

one  of  them  could  help  the  other.  To  this  end 
he  sent  General  W.  T.  Sherman,  who  had 
won  renown  at  Shiloh  and  in  the  Vicksburg 
and  Chattanooga  campaigns,  against  Johnston, 
while  he  himself  directed  the  movements  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  commanded  by  Meade. 

Sherman  Takes  Atlanta. —  General  Sherman 
started  from  Chattanooga  in  June  with  one 
hundred  thousand  men.  His  orders  from  Grant 
were  to  take  Atlanta,  an  important  railroad 
centre  and  chief  base  of  military  supplies. 

Throughout  his  entire  campaign  there  was 
comparatively  little  fighting.  Johnston's  force 
was  small  and  he  desired  to  avoid  direct  battle 
until  he  could  risk  it  with  advantage.  Both  com- 
manders exhibited  remarkable  skill.  But  Jef- 
ferson Davis,  the  President  of  the  Confederacy, 
disliked  Johnston  and  made  the  vital  mistake 
of  removing  him  from  command,  putting  in 
his  place  General  Hood.  This  officer  was  a 
bold  fighter,  but  not  the  equal  of  Johnston  or 
Sherman  in  efficiency.  After  a  strong  but  futile 
resistance  Atlanta  capitulated  to  Sherman  (Sep- 
tember 2d) .  Hood  then  turned  into  Tennessee 
hoping  to  draw  Sherman  after  him.  But  Sher- 
man remained  where  he  was  and  sent  General 
Thomas,  "  the  Rock  of  Chickamauga,"  to  take 


THE   CIVIL  WAR  251 

care  of  Hood.  At  the  battle  of  Nashville  (De- 
cember 1 5th- 1 6th)  Thomas  utterly  destroyed 
the  army  of  Hood. 

Grant  and  Lee. — While  Sherman  was  en- 
gaged in  the  South,  Grant  was  endeavoring 
to  take  Richmond.  These  final  campaigns  in 
Virginia  against  Lee  were  the  fiercest  and 
bloodiest  of  the  war.  The  course  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  lay  through  a  vast  region  of 
forest  and  swamp  known  as  the  Wilderness. 
That  army  now  numbered  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  and  was  constantly  increasing  in  size 
and  in  fighting  strength.  The  Army  of  North- 
ern Virginia  could  muster  only  sixty  thousand 
half-starved,  ragged,  worn-out  men. 

Notwithstanding  the  disparity  of  forces, 
Grant's  advance  was  ably  resisted  by  Lee.  The 
battles  of  the  Wilderness  and  Spottsylvania 
(May  5th-i8th)  were  virtually  Confederate 
victories,  since  Grant  was  continually  forced  to 
deviate  from  his  contemplated  line  of  advance. 
Still,  changing  his  tactics,  he  slowly  pushed 
toward  Richmond. 

At  Cold  Harbor  Grant  encountered  the 
strong  centre  of  the  Confederate  defence.  Af- 
ter a  heroic  but  futile  charge,  during  which 
twelve  thousand  Union  soldiers  lost  their  lives 


252  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

in  thirty  minutes,  Grant  was  again  obliged  to 
change  his  plan  of  attack.  He  determined  to 
move  upon  Richmond  from  the  south.  But  here 
his  advance  was  blocked  by  the  fortifications 
of  Petersburg,  within  which  Lee,  anticipating 
Grant's  purpose,  had  moved  his  army.  As  the 
defences  were  too  strong  to  be  carried  by  assault, 
Grant  settled  down  for  a  prolonged  siege  in 
June,  1864. 

The  Presidential  Election  of  1864. — While 
Grant  was  besieging  Petersburg  and  Sherman 
was  about  to  undertake  his  famous  march 
"  from  Atlanta  to  the  sea/'  the  country  was 
called  upon  to  choose  a  President.  Lincoln  had 
many  enemies  in  his  own  party  who  desired  to 
prevent  his  renomination.  But  his  strength 
with  the  people  prevailed  over  the  plots  of  poli- 
ticians, who  were  compelled  to  nominate  him 
against  their  will.  Andrew  Johnson,  a  Demo- 
crat from  Tennessee,  was  named  for  Vice-presi- 
dent in  the  hope  of  drawing  the  Democratic 
vote.  Johnson  had  attracted  wide  attention  in 
1860  because  he  was  the  only  Southern  Senator 
who  refused  to  follow  his  State. 

The  Democrats  tried  to  regain  control  of  the 
Government  on  a  platform  which  declared  that 
the  war  was  a  failure  and  advocated  a  peace  con- 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  253 

vention  of  all  the  States  for  the  purpose  of 
reestablishing  the  Union  by  common  consent. 
Their  candidate  was  General  McClellan,  who, 
however,  repudiated  the  sentiment  of  his  party 
that  the  war  was  a  failure. 

Many  Democrats  voted  for  Lincoln,  who 
was  overwhelmingly  reelected,  McClellan  carry- 
ing only  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Kentucky. 

The  Fall  of  the  Confederacy. — We  left  Gen- 
eral Sherman  in  undisputed  possession  of  At- 
lanta. After  burning  the  city  he  started  for  the 
coast,  a  distance  of  three  hundred  miles,  leaving 
in  his  wake  a  belt  of  desolation  sixty  miles 
wide.  There  was  no  hostile  army  to  check 
his  advance.  Railroads,  public  property,  and 
growing  crops  were  destroyed  that  the  enemy's 
power  of  resistance  might  be  the  more  effect- 
ually and  speedily  broken.  Reaching  Savannah, 
he  started  north  to  join  Grant  in  demolishing 
the  army  of  Lee. 

In  the  meantime  General  Lee,  who  had  been 
given  full  power,,  had  recalled  Joseph  E.  John- 
ston. This  officer  collected  the  fragments  of  the 
scattered  Western  forces,  which  he  formed  into 
an  army  to  resist  the  advance  of  Sherman. 

While  Grant  with  iron  purpose  was  hammer- 
ing away  at  Petersburg,  General  Sheridan  was 


254  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

despatched  with  a  large  cavalry  force  to  ravage 
the  Shenandoah  Valley,  the  last  remaining  Con- 
federate granary.  Sheridan  executed  his  com- 
mission with  thoroughness,  destroying  mills, 
barns,  crops,  railroads,  canals,  and  bridges,  and 
defeating  a  Confederate  army  under  General 
Early,  a  detachment  of  which  had  invaded 
Pennsylvania  and  burned  Chambersburg. 

For  ten  months  Petersburg  withstood  the 
efforts  of  Grant.  At  last  its  weakened  forces 
could  hold  out  no  longer.  In  a  final  desperate 
assault,  Sunday,  April  zd,  the  city  was  taken. 
The  Confederate  capital  was  now  without  pro- 
tection and  the  next  day  the  goal  of  four  years' 
heroic  effort  was  occupied  by  Union  troops. 
Jefferson  Davis  and  his  cabinet  fled  to  Georgia.* 

General  Lee's  purpose  now  was  to  escape 
with  his  army  in  the  night,  join  Johnston  in 
North  Carolina  and  offer  battle  to  Sherman 
before  he  could  be  reenforced  by  Grant.  But 
the  swarming  Federals  cut  off  Lee's  retreat  and 
his  handful  of  Confederate  soldiers  found 
themselves  surrounded.  Even  then  these  in- 

*  Davis  was  captured  a  few  weeks  later  and  imprisoned 
in  Fortress  Monroe  for  two  years.  He  was  indicted  for 
treason  but  was  released  on  the  bond  of  three  Northern  gentle- 
men. In  1868  Davis  and  other  prominent  leaders  were  par- 
doned by  the  President  of  the  United  States. 


THE   CIVIL  WAR  255 

trepid  men  were  eager  to  fight.  Lee,  however, 
realizing  the  folly  of  further  resistance  and  un- 
willing to  sacrifice  life  to  prolong  a  hopeless 
struggle,  gave  up.  At  Appomattox  Court-house 
on  April  9,  1865,  the  Army  of  Northern  Vir- 
ginia laid  down  its  arms.  On  the  26th  Johnston 
surrendered  to  Sherman. 

Both  conquerors  proved  themselves  to  be  as 
generous  in  the  hour  of  victory  as  they  had  been 
heroic  and  skilful  in  battle.  The  starving  Con- 
federates were  supplied  with  rations  from  the 
plentiful  stores  of  their  victors  and  allowed  to 
return  to  their  homes  free  of  penalties  after 
promising  to  obey  the  laws  and  not  to  take  up 
arms  against  the  United  States.  No  celebra- 
tions were  indulged  in  by  the  triumphant  Union 
soldiers  and  no  note  of  exultation  mocked  the 
disappointment  of  their  vanquished  foes. 

The  Armies  Disband.— In  April,  1865,  the 
Union  armies  numbered  over  a  million  veterans, 
equipped,  disciplined,  organized,  and  of  superb 
fighting  efficiency.  Prophets  of  evil  said  that 
they  had  been  bred  to  the  love  of  war  and  camp 
life  and  would  never  again  be  contented  to  re- 
sume the  employments  of  peace.  And  yet  in  an 
incredibly  short  time  this  army  completely  dis- 
appeared. There  was  no  rioting,  no  disorder. 


256  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

As  quietly  as  these  men  had  left  their  homes 
to  fight  for  the  flag,  they  came  back  and  once 
more  took  their  places  at  the  work-bench,  be- 
hind the  plough,  in  the  factory,  and  the  law- 
office. 

The  voluntary  return  of  this  vast  army  of 
conquerors  to  the  pursuits  of  industry  was  a 
splendid  vindication  of  American  citizenship  and 
proved  that  in  spite  of  gigantic  military  suc- 
cesses we  were  still  a  peace-loving  people. 

Pathetic  in  its  melancholy  contrast  was  the 
home-coming  of  the  Confederate  soldier.  He 
found  a  ruined  farm,  a  plantation  run  to  waste, 
a  land  swept  by  the  ravages  of  war.  Men  who 
had  once  been  rich  were  now  reduced  to  pov- 
erty. With  courage  never  surpassed  on  the 
battle-field  these  vanquished  heroes  in  gray  ac- 
cepted defeat  without  a  murmur  and  began  life 
anew,  resolved  that  toil  should  know  no  end 
until  desolation  should  give  place  to  plenty  and 
the  desert  blossom  as  the  rose. 

The  Northern  and  Southern  soldiers  were 
alike  Americans,  equally  brave  and  equally 
honest.  Well  may  we  take  a  national  pride  in 
their  splendid  records  though  they  fought  in 
opposing  ranks. 

Results   of   the   War.— No    mere    combat   of 


THE   CIVIL  WAR  257 

arms  can  ever  settle  which  side  of  a  disputed 
question  is  morally  right  and  which  is  morally 
wrong.  But  it  can  and  does  remove  certain 
questions  from  all  possibility  of  further  quarrel 
by  proving  to  the  defeated  side  the  futility  of 
its  purpose. 

The  Civil  War  determined  forever  that  the 
principle  of  secession,  whether  right  or  wrong, 
could  never  win  triumphant  recognition;  not 
only  because  the  Federal  Government  is  too 
strong  to  be  resisted,  but  because  the  great 
majority  of  the  American  people  are  convinced 
that  their  prosperity  is  dependent  upon  condi- 
tions which  can  exist  only  by  a  close  political 
union  in  which  the  States  are  subordinate  to  the 
nation.  The  rights  of  the  States  are  important 
and  must  be  maintained,  but  the  measure  of 
their  extent  must  be  the  Federal  Constitution. 
The  sovereignty  of  the  States  over  the  nation 
is  quite  another  matter ;  that  was  removed  from 
the  field  of  political  discussion  by  the  war  and 
will  never  be  reasserted.  The  Southern  people 
have  accepted  this  decision  as  final,  and  there 
are  to-day  none  more  loyal  to  the  flag  of  our 
common  country. 

The  war  also  took  the  slavery  question  out 
of  politics  by  destroying  the  institution  itself; 


258  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

first  by  legislative  and  executive  action,  then  by 
the  Thirteenth  Amendment.  The  destruction 
of  slavery,  while  at  first  entailing  great  loss  upon 
the  South,  proved  an  ultimate  blessing.  It  has 
led  to  the  opening  of  mines  and  the  establish- 
ment of  factories,  both  of  which  were  impossible 
under  the  regime  of  slavery.  The  South  is  un- 
excelled in  natural  resources.  These  are  being 
rapidly  developed  and  in  course  of  time  its 
wealth  must  equal  or  surpass  that  of  any  other 
section. 

The  Civil  War,  then,  solved  the  two  prob- 
lems of  secession  and  slavery.  But  it  created 
other  difficulties  more  tragic  than  the  war  it- 
self and  entailing  far  greater  bitterness. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

RECONSTRUCTION 

NO  sooner  had  the  Confederacy  fallen 
than   the   national    Government   was 
confronted  with  the  perplexing  ques- 
tion,   What  shall  be  done  with   the  Southern 
States?    The  Republican  Party  was  completely 
dominant  and  its  decision  would  be  final.     But 
on  this  point  the  party  was  not  united. 

President  Lincoln,  Secretary  Seward,  Grant, 
Sherman,  and  other  generals  favored  admitting 
the  Southern  States  at  once  to  full  representa- 
tion in  the  Government,  conditioned  on  their 
acquiescence  in  the  results  of  the  war.  Actuated 
by  the  spirit  of  Lincoln's  noble  motto,  "  with 
charity  for  all,  with  malice  toward  none,"  they 
said  in  substance :  The  South  was  sincere  in  its 
devotion  to  the  Confederacy.  But  the  war  is 
over  and  the  South  is  defeated.  Slavery  is 
abolished,  the  Union  is  saved.  We  can  afford 
to  be  generous,  but  we  cannot  afford  to  be  un- 
just. The  surest  way  to  establish  fraternal 
259 


260  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

relations  with  our  late  foes  is  to  let  by-gones 
be  by-gones  and  devote  our  united  effort  to 
building  up  our  common  country. 

This  was  also  the  attitude  of  the  soldiers  and 
of  the  great  majority  of  Northern  people. 

The  strongest  and  ablest  opponent  of  this 
liberal  policy  was  Thaddeus  Stevens  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Republican  leader  of  the  House 
of  Representatives.  Stevens  declared  that  the 
South  was  nothing  more  than  conquered  ter- 
ritory to  be  disposed  of  in  the  way  that  would 
best  suit  the  purposes  of  its  conquerors  and 
benefit  the  Republican  Party.  In  this  design 
and  policy  he  had  the  effective  cooperation  of 
Charles  Sumner,  the  distinguished  abolitionist 
Senator  from  Massachusetts,  and  the  support  of 
a  Congressional  majority. 

The  Assassination  of  Lincoln. — Before  the  Gov- 
ernment could  determine  upon  any  policy,  an 
event  occurred  which  plunged  the  country  into 
blackest  gloom  and  destroyed  all  possibility  of 
a  fraternal  adjustment  of  this  delicate  matter. 

On  the  evening  of  April  I4th  President  Lin- 
coln was  shot  through  the  brain  while  attend- 
ing a  play  in  Ford's  Theatre  in  Washington. 
The  assassin  was  John  Wilkes  Booth,  an  actor, 
and  chief  conspirator  in  an  infamous  plot  to 


RECONSTRUCTION  261 

murder  the  President  and  his  Cabinet.  The 
blow  fell  with  crushing  force  upon  the  North, 
which  had  learned  to  admire  Abraham  Lincoln 
for  his  integrity  and  common-sense  and  to  love 
him  for  his  magnanimous  and  sympathetic  na- 
ture. Born  under  the  humblest  conditions  he 
had  risen  by  sheer  force  of  surpassing  character 
to  be  the  foremost  ruler  of  his  time  and  one  of 
the  most  impressive  figures  in  the  history  of 
mankind. 

Thaddeus  Stevens  Supreme. — The  assassina- 
tion of  Lincoln  was  the  worst  calamity  that 
could  have  befallen  the  prostrate  South.  Out- 
side of  its  own  borders  he  was  the  best  and 
wisest  friend  it  had  in  a  crisis  when  a  powerful 
advocate  was  most  needed.  So  strong  was  Lin- 
coln in  the  confidence  of  the  Northern  people 
that  Congress  probably  could  not  have  offered 
effective  opposition  to  his  Southern  policy  had 
he  remained  at  the  helm  of  state. 

The  atrocious  deed  was  ascribed  by  the 
Northern  press  to  the  instigation  of  Jefferson 
Davis  and  the  Confederate  leaders.  The  whole 
North  called  for  summary  and  speedy  pun- 
ishment. It  is  now  known  that  the  crime 
originated  in  the  wicked  hearts  and  disor- 
dered brains  of  a  few  desperadoes.  Instead  of 


262  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

rejoicing,  mass-meetings  were  held  in  South- 
ern cities,  where  indignant  sorrow  voiced  un- 
feigned regret. 

But  Northern  passion,  inflamed  by  rumor  and 
suspicion,  demanded  vengeance.  The  death 
of  Lincoln  removed  the  only  check  upon  the 
purpose  of  the  Stevens  radicals  who  came  into 
full  control  of  the  Republican  Party  and  of  the 
nation. 

Andrew  Johnson,  who  now  stepped  into  Lin- 
coln's place,  is  the  most  striking  example  of 
rapid  promotion  from  obscurity  to  exalted  polit- 
ical rank  which  the  history  of  our  country 
affords.  He  was  born  in  North  Carolina,  of 
the  despised  "  poor  white  "  stock,  and  migrated 
to  Tennessee  in  his  boyhood.  He  never  at- 
tended school  and  could  not  even  write  his  name 
until  after  he  was  married.  A  tailor  by  trade, 
he  entered  politics  and  served  in  many  dis- 
tinguished offices.  He  possessed  great  natural 
ability  and  courage,  but  he  was  deficient  in  tact, 
and  being  a  Southern  Democrat  he  never  had 
the  confidence  of  the  party  which  elected  him. 

The  President  and  Congress. — When  Andrew 
Johnson  became  President  of  the  United  States 
Congress  was  not  in  session.  The  new  Presi- 
dent started  to  carry  into  effect  the  generous 


RECONSTRUCTION  263 

policy  of  his  predecessor.  In  a  few  weeks  the 
Southern  States  were  reorganized  on  lines  em- 
bodying the  ideals  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Noth- 
ing was  said  about  negro  suffrage.  Political 
power  remained  in  the  hands  of  white  men.* 

The  President,  however,  reckoned  without 
Congress  and  its  powerful  leader.  When  that 
body  met  in  December,  1865,  the  Southern 
Senators  and  Representatives  who  had  been 
elected  under  Johnson's  plan  were  refused  ad- 
mission to  Congress.  The  work  of  the  Presi- 
dent was  ignored  and  Congress,  under  the 
merciless  direction  of  Thaddeus  Stevens,  put 
into  operation  an  altogether  different  and  drastic 
plan  of  reconstruction. 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment. — In  South  Caro- 
lina, Mississippi,  and  Louisiana  the  black  popu- 
lation exceeded  the  white.  These  States,  fore- 
seeing the  peril  sure  to  arise  in  Southern 
communities  from  the  presence  of  a  great  mass 
of  ignorant  and  lazy  negroes  without  legal  re- 

*  Andrew  Johnson,  unlike  Lincoln,  was  exceedingly  bitter 
against  the  prominent  Confederate  leaders  and  refused  to 
include  them  in  the  general  pardon  extended  to  the  rank  and 
file  of  Southern  people.  This  was  probably  owing  to  the 
traditional  and  ingrained  jealousy  of  the  "poor  white"  for 
the  aristocratic  class.  Subsequently  Mr.  Johnson  changed 
his  attitude  toward  the  Southern  leaders  and  became  more 
lenient. 


264  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

straint  and  unable  to  realize  the  obligations 
which  freedom  imposed,  passed  laws  requiring 
idle  negroes  to  work.  Some  of  the  laws  were 
very  severe. 

Congress  interpreted  the  action  of  these  States 
to  signify  a  deliberate  purpose  to  reduce  the 
"  freedmen,"  as  the  emancipated  slaves  were 
called,  to  a  condition  of  dependence  upon  the 
whites  which  would  approximate  their  former 
servitude,  and  thus  practically  nullify  the 
Thirteenth  Amendment,  which  had  forbid- 
den the  reestablishment  of  slavery.  Congress 
then  proposed  another  amendment  to  the 
Constitution,  which  would  place  the  freedmen 
under  the  protection  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment  defined  citizen- 
ship in  such  a  way  as  to  include  the  negroes,  and 
then  forbade  any  State  to  abridge  the  privileges 
of  citizens  or  to  deprive  them  of  life,  liberty, 
or  property  without  due  process  of  law.  When 
the  proposed  amendment  was  submitted  to  the 
people  the  Northern  and  Border  States  ratified 
it,  but  the  Southern  States,  with  the  exception  of 
Tennessee,  rejected  it. 

The  Reconstruction  Acts. — In  refusing  to  give 
their  assent  to  a  legislative  proposition  unani- 


RECONSTRUCTION  265 

mously  disapproved  by  the  judgment  of  their 
section  the  Southern  States  acted  strictly  with- 
in their  Constitutional  right.  But  Thaddeus 
Stevens  and  the  Republican  leaders  resented  this 
independent  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  con- 
quered South. 

Desiring  above  all  things  the  permanent  tri- 
umph of  their  party  these  men  proceeded  to 
carry  into  effect  a  plan  which  was  nothing 
less  than  conspiracy  against  the  liberties  of  the 
Southern  people  and  the  rights  of  the  South- 
ern States,  and  a  plain  subversion  of  the  Con- 
stitution itself.  They  resolved  to  take  from 
the  educated,  intelligent  white  men  of  the  South, 
trained  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  in 
the  science  of  government,  all  political  rights 
and  power  and  give  the  South  over  to  the 
control  of  a  vast  and  irresponsible  horde  of  ne- 
groes, all  of  them  ignorant  and  inexperienced 
and  many  of  them  vicious.  The  whites,  who 
were  Democrats  almost  to  a  man,  were  to 
be  disfranchised,  and  the  freedmen  given  the 
ballot. 

By  this  measure  the  Republican  Party  ex- 
pected to  build  up  a  negro  organization  which 
would  transfer  permanently  the  Southern  States 
into  the  Republican  column  and  destroy  the 


266  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Democratic  Party  beyond  all  possibility  of  res- 
urrection. Thaddeus  Stevens  openly  declared 
such  to  be  his  purpose. 

To  insure  complete  success  and  to  prevent  the 
opposition  which  the  Southern  white  people 
would  naturally  attempt,  the  United  States 
Army  was  to  take  military  possession  of  the 
entire  region  and  support  by  force  the  experi- 
ment of  negro  rule. 

In  1867  Congress  passed  two  acts  by  which 
the  ten  Southern  States  that  had  rejected  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  were  divided  into  five 
military  districts  and  each  district  placed  under 
an  army  officer  who  was  to  act  in  the  capacity 
of  military  governor.  This  official  was  directed 
to  hold  an  election  for  delegates  to  a  State  con- 
vention. A  test  oath  was  required  which  prac- 
tically debarred  the  whites  and  permitted  only 
negroes  to  take  part  in  the  election.  Each  State 
convention  must  then  frame  a  constitution  which 
would  extend  the  franchise  to  freedmen.  If  the 
new  constitutions  were  approved  by  the  colored 
voters  and  accepted  by  Congress  the  States 
would  thereupon  be  admitted  to  the  Union  after 
their  legislatures  had  ratified  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment. 

The  President  vetoed  both  reconstruction  bills 


RECONSTRUCTION  267 

but  Congress  by  an  overwhelming  vote  passed 
them  over  his  veto. 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment. — The  Fourteenth 
Amendment  became  a  part  of  the  Constitution 
in  1868.  But  the  Republican  leaders  were  not 
satisfied.  Knowing  that  their  party  in  the  South 
depended  wholly  upon  negro  dominance,  they 
feared  that  if  the  white  Democrats  should  re- 
gain control  of  their  States  they  would  disfran- 
chise the  negroes  and  make  the  South  again 
Democratic. 

Another  amendment  was  accordingly  drafted 
with  the  intent  of  forever  insuring  negro  suf- 
frage. It  denied  to  Congress  or  to  any  State 
the  power  to  disfranchise  a  man  "  on  account 
of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servi- 
tude." The  negro  governments  of  the  South 
ratified  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  which  became 
a  part  of  the  law  of  the  land  in  1870. 

Anarchy  in  the  South. — It  is  now  agreed  by 
nearly  all  historians  and  statesmen  that  the  re- 
constructive measures  of  Congress  were  a  series 
of  tragic  blunders.  They  engendered  a  bitter- 
ness of  feeling  against  the  North  which  would 
have  been  impossible  under  the  humane  and 
generous  policy  of  Lincoln  or  Johnson.  Nor 
did  they  accomplish  their  purpose — which  was 


268  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

to  make  the  South  permanently  Republican. 
Not  one  of  the  negro  governments  endured  after 
the  Federal  troops,  upon  which  they  depended, 
were  withdrawn.  They  were  corrupt  and  scan- 
dalous beyond  all  precedent  or  parallel.  The 
whole  ill-fated  region  was  flooded  with  un- 
scrupulous adventurers  from  the  North,  called 
"carpet-baggers,"  who  took  advantage  of  the 
helplessness  of  the  whites  and  the  unfitness  of 
the  negro  to  fill  the  offices  and  grow  rich  on 
public  plunder.  The  freedman  was  taught  to 
rely  for  the  vindication  of  his  newly  acquired 
political  rights  not  upon  the  fruits  of  character 
but  upon  force  bills  and  Federal  bayonets. 

The  States  of  the  "  black  belt "  fared  worst 
Governor  Moses  of  South  Carolina  was  a  pro- 
fessional crook,  whose  photograph  may  be  seen 
to-day  in  the  Rogues'  Gallery  of  New  York. 
The  South  Carolina  Legislature  during  a  single 
session  spent  $350,000  for  whiskey,  cigars,  and 
kindred  luxuries  for  its  colored  members.  Tax- 
able values  in  this  State  dropped  from  $490,- 
000,000  in  1860  to  $184,000,000  in  1871, 
while  in  the  same  period  taxes  increased  from 
less  than  $400,000  to  $2,000,000.  In  South 
Carolina  there  were  two  hundred  negro  trial 
judges  who  could  neither  read  nor  write. 


RECONSTRUCTION  269 

At  the  close  of  Reconstruction  the  average 
debt  of  each  State  subjected  to  its  blasting 
regime  was  nearly  five  times  as  great  as  at  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War — with  nothing  to  show 
for  it  but  demoralization  and  ruin. 

The  Failure  of  Reconstruction. — Several  addi- 
tional laws  were  passed  by  Congress  designed 
to  bolster  up  negro  rule,  but  they  were  rendered 
ineffective  or  declared  unconstitutional  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

Gradually  the  whites  recovered  control  of 
their  State  governments.  This  was  accom- 
plished largely  by  means  of  the  Ku-Klux-Klan, 
a  powerful  secret  fraternity  which  sprang  up 
all  over  the  South.  Its  members  wore  disguises 
and  operated  by  night  in  armed  bands.  The 
huts  or  houses  of  the  negro  rulers  were  visited 
and  the  occupants  taken  out  and  flogged  or  else 
frightened  with  a  show  of  "  magic."  Sometimes 
they  were  killed.  The  mysterious  character  of 
the  fraternity  appealed  to  the  superstition  of  the 
negroes,  who  yielded  at  once.  The  Ku-Klux- 
Klan  directed  the  same  effective  policy  of  in- 
timidation against  the  "  carpet-baggers."  At 
first  its  membership  was  confined  to  conservative 
men  who  were  driven  to  these  measures  in  nec- 
essary self-protection.  Later  it  passed  into  the 


270  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

control  of  a  different  element,  and  was  finally 
broken  up  by  Federal  marshals — but  not  until 
it  had  achieved  its  purpose,  which  was  to  save 
the  civilization  of  the  South. 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment  was  greatly 
weakened  by  several  Supreme  Court  decisions, 
which  limited  its  scope  and  confirmed  the  South- 
ern States  in  the  possession  of  the  powers  of 
which  Congress  had  tried  to  deprive  them. 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment  has  likewise  be- 
come a  dead  letter.  The  later  State  constitu- 
tions, drafted  by  white  men,  have  practically 
disfranchised  the  negro. 

It  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  progress  and 
welfare  of  the  South  that  white  men  shall  rule 
it.  In  no  other  way  can  its  resources  be  devel- 
oped and  its  general  advancement  keep  pace 
with  the  rest  of  the  nation.  Even  the  North 
now  recognizes  this  fact  and  is  no  longer  dis- 
posed to  interfere  in  those  problems  which  public 
opinion  has  acknowledged  the  South  alone  is 
competent  to  solve. 

The  harsh  and  futile  measures  of  the  Repub- 
lican radicals  not  only  dimmed  the  glory  which 
their  party  had  won  by  its  successful  conduct  of 
the  Civil  War,  but  it  resulted  in  committing  the 
Southern  whites  almost  unanimously  to  the  sup- 


RECONSTRUCTION  271 

port  of  the  Democratic  Party;  not  primarily 
because  Democratic  policies  were  better  suited 
to  Southern  interests  than  Republican  policies, 
but  because  the  Republican  Party  was  associated 
with  the  vindictive  and  disastrous  experiment 
of  negro  rule. 

Since,  however,  the  Republicans  have  given 
up  serious  thought  of  enforcing  negro  equality, 
it  is  likely  that  their  party  will  eventually  com- 
mand a  liberal  Southern  support  on  the  strength 
of  its  own  merits.  Already  we  can  discover  a 
definite  movement  in  that  direction,  and  the 
"  solid  South  "  shows  signs  of  breaking  up. 

Vast  sums  of  money  have  been  expended 
upon  negro  education.  Part  has  been  contrib- 
uted by  Northern  philanthropists,  but  by  far  the 
greater  portion  has  been  the  voluntary  gift  of 
the  Southern  people  out  of  their  poverty. 

The  Negro  of  To-day.— With  the  exception  of 
an  exceedingly  small  class  of  intelligent  and 
efficient  colored  people,  the  negro  exhibits  none 
of  the  results  that  forty  years  of  freedom  and 
industrial  opportunity  under  the  tutelage  of  edu- 
cation are  popularly  supposed  to  have  produced. 

The  domestic  and  commercial  requirements 
of  slavery,  necessitating  as  they  did  careful  at- 
tention to  hygiene  and  moral  culture  as  well  as 


272  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

a  thorough  training  in  the  useful  arts,  produced 
a  being  in  whom  bodily  strength  was  united  to 
a  considerable  degree  of  moral  virtue.  But 
with  the  passing  of  slavery  the  beneficent  and 
humanizing  influence  of  white  control  disap- 
peared, with  the  consequence  that  the  original 
elements  of  negro  character,  hopelessly  rooted 
in  countless  centuries  of  jungle  life,  at  once  as- 
serted themselves,  and  have  wrought  sad  havoc 
with  the  manhood  and  the  prospects  of  the  race. 

The  overwhelming  tendency  to  herd  in  cities, 
aggravated  by  a  constitutional  inability  to  resist 
the  peculiar  temptations  of  urban  life,  is  having 
a  rapidly  disastrous  effect  upon  both  physical 
and  moral  character.  The  extraordinary  pro- 
clivity of  the  negro  to  find  his  keenest  enjoy- 
ment in  sensual  gratification,  together  with  the 
entire  absence  of  self-control,  renders  him  the 
inevitable  and  easy  prey  of  drunkenness,  tuber- 
culosis, and  those  diseases  most  demoralizing 
to  the  soul  and  destructive  to  the  body  of  man. 
His  mortality  has  increased  above  one  hundred 
per  cent. 

Crime  is  alarmingly  on  the  increase,  not  only 
in  the  region  known  as  the  "  black  belt,"  but 
throughout  the  entire  area  of  the  former  slave 
States.  Although  the  whites  in  the  South  out- 


RECONSTRUCTION  273 

number  the  blacks  three  to  one,  yet  the  latter 
furnish  from  eighty-five  to  ninety-three  per  cent 
of  the  convict  class.  Even  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington, the  colored  "  Mecca,"  the  negroes  fur- 
nish eighty-six  per  cent  of  the  criminals,  while 
comprising  less  than  one-third  of  the  population. 
And  the  fact  of  most  tragic  import  is  that  this 
amazing  criminal  activity  is  almost  wholly  the 
work  of  the  generations  born  in  freedom  and 
whose  education  has  thus  far  cost  $150,000,000. 
The  productive  capacity  of  the  negro  is 
everywhere  of  the  lowest.  He  owns  but  three 
per  cent  of  the  taxable  property  of  the  South, 
and  most  of  that  represents  the  accumulations 
of  the  older  members  of  the  race  who  were  bred 
to  the  habits  of  industry  which  slavery  pro- 
moted. He  has  had  wide  opportunities  to 
prove  his  industrial  fitness  in  the  manufactures 
which  are  springing  up  all  over  the  South,  but 
he  has  failed  in  factory  and  in  mill  because  he 
cannot  be  relied  upon  to  keep  his  contract.  The 
average  negro  has  not  the  first  notion  of  moral 
responsibility.  He  possesses  neither  strength  of 
will  nor  power  of  conscience  to  resist  the  in- 
clinations of  his  baser  nature.  He  knows  no 
motive  to  industry  beyond  the  simple  barbaric 
impulse  to  fill  his  stomach  or  to  decorate  his 


274  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

person.  With  these  primitive  wants  tempo- 
rarily satisfied,  he  will  knock  off  work  with  as 
little  compunction  as  he  would  steal  a  chicken 
or  sell  his  vote. 

The  appalling  disregard  of  moral  obligations, 
plus  his  hand-to-mouth  philosophy  of  existence, 
is  the  secret  of  the  negro's  indisputable  failure 
in  the  serious  pursuits  of  life. 

At  his  present  rate  of  deterioration  the 
American  negro  is  destined  to  a  certain  and  not 
distant  extinction.  The  mere  fact  that  the  race 
numbers  about  nine  millions  in  the  United 
States,  so  far  from  indicating  a  future  of  prom- 
ise, signifies  rather  the  contrary,  for  if  the  rate 
of  increase  which  prevailed  before  the  Civil 
War  had  continued  to  the  present  time,  the  nu- 
merical strength  of  the  negro  would  have  far 
exceeded  that  figure. 

Left  to  the  "  uncovenanted  "  mercy  of  a  supe- 
rior race,  and  exposed  to  the  untempered  severi- 
ties of  natural  law  without  the  safeguards  of 
physical  oversight  or  moral  restraint,  the  ulti- 
mate disappearance  of  the  negro  from  this  con- 
tinent is  only  a  matter  of  time. 


CHAPTER   XX 

FROM  THE   IMPEACHMENT  OF   JOHNSON  TO 
THE   POLITICAL   REVOLUTION  OF  1884 

THE    Constitution   gives   the    President 
power  to  appoint  many  public  officials 
subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Senate, 
but  by  common  consent  he  has  from  earliest 
times  had  the  right  to  remove  independently 
any  officer  of  the  Government  so  appointed. 

The  Tenure-of-Office  Act.— In  the  spring  of 
1867  Congress  passed  an  act  requiring  the  con- 
sent of  the  Senate  to  removals  from  office.  The 
measure  was  designed  by  the  Republican  leaders 
to  reduce  the  President's  independent  powers 
and  thus  bring  him  more  completely  under  their 
control.  It  was  an  outgrowth  of  the  quarrel 
between  Congress  and  the  Executive  over  Re- 
construction. 

Soon  after  the  passage  of  the  Tenure-of-Of- 
fice Act,  President  Johnson  requested  Mr.  Stan- 
ton,  the  Secretary  of  War,  with  whom  the 
President  was  not  on  speaking  terms,  to  resign. 
Stanton  refused  to  do  so,  whereupon  the  Presi- 
275 


276  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

dent  removed  him  in  defiance  of  the  law  and 
appointed  General  Grant  to  fill  the  office.  The 
Senate  was  not  in  session  when  this  occurred. 

When  Congress  met,  the  Senate  refused  to 
concur  in  the  action  of  the  Executive.  General 
Grant  resigned,  and  Stanton  resumed  his  place 
in  the  Cabinet.  The  President  again  dismissed 
him  and  appointed  another  Secretary  of  War. 

Then  occurred  an  event  which  had  never  hap- 
pened before  in  the  history  of  the  Republic. 
The  House  of  Representatives  impeached  the 
President  of  the  United  States  of  high  crimes 
and  misdemeanors. 

The  Impeachment  of  Andrew  Johnson  (1868). — 
The  Constitution  gives  the  power  of  impeach- 
ment to  the  lower  branch  of  Congress,  but  pro- 
vides that  trial  shall  be  by  the  Senate.  In  the 
case  of  the  President  the  Chief-justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  presides. 

The  charges  against  Andrew  Johnson  were 
eleven  in  number,  the  most  important  being  his  t 
removal  of  the  Secretary  of  War  in  defiance  of 
the  Tenure-of -Office  Act.  During  the  course 
of  the  trial,  which  lasted  two  months,  popular 
excitement  reached  fever  heat.  The  President's 
enemies  were  legion,  his  friends  few.  From 
beginning  to  end  the  prosecution  was  a  strictly 


FROM   1868  TO   1884  277 

partisan  affair,  a  policy  of  vengeance  resorted 
to  by  the  Republican  leaders  in  order  to  punish 
the  Executive  for  his  insubordinate  attitude 
toward  the  party  which  had  made  his  elevation 
possible. 

The  trial  was  conducted  with  slight  regard 
to  the  rules  which  govern  impartial  tribunals. 
Important  testimony  favorable  to  the  President 
was  repeatedly  excluded  by  the  Senate  in  spite 
of  the  ruling  of  Chief-justice  Chase,  who  de- 
clared it  admissible. 

The  Senate  numbered  fifty- four  members;  a 
two-thirds  vote  was  necessary  to  convict.  As 
their  names  were  called  most  of  the  Republi- 
cans voted,  "  guilty."  The  eight  Democratic 
members  answered,  "  not  guilty."  A  few  Re- 
publicans whom  partisan  fury  had  not  blinded 
to  the  equities  of  the  case  voted  with  the  Demo- 
crats, and  the  President  was  acquitted  by  a  ma- 
jority of  one. 

The  Republican  Senators  who  gave  their 
voices  for  acquittal  did  so  in  the  face  of  public 
threats,  of  newspaper  abuse,  and  party  pressure. 
Most  of  them  were  defeated  for  reelection. 
But  the  temperate  judgment  of  later  years  has 
applauded  their  courage  and  approved  the  wis- 
dom of  their  course. 


278  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  result  of  the  trial  was  most  fortunate, 
not  merely  for  the  personal  fame  and  official 
record  of  Andrew  Johnson,  who,  had  he  been 
convicted,  would  have  suffered  the  disgrace  of 
deposition  from  office,  but  because  of  its  deep 
and  permanent  effect  upon  the  political  develop- 
ment of  our  country.  Had  that  single  deter- 
mining vote  been  cast  for  conviction,  it  would 
have  established  a  precedent  for  expelling  the 
President  whenever  he  placed  himself  at  cross 
purposes  with  Congress.  The  result  of  that 
would  ultimately  have  been  to  destroy  the  ad- 
mirable system  of  legislative  and  executive  bal- 
ance which  the  Constitution  fixed  as  the  effective 
safeguard  against  encroachment  by  one  branch 
of  government  upon  another  and  for  the  pro- 
tection of  popular  liberties  from  the  tyranny  of 
office.  The  conviction  of  Andrew  Johnson 
would  have  made  the  President  a  figure-head 
and  Congress  supreme.* 

The  Purchase  of  Alaska.— In  1867  the  na- 
tional area  was  vastly  increased  by  the  addition 
of  Alaska  at  a  cost  of  $7,200,000.  This  region 
had  belonged  to  Russia  since  1741.  The  pur- 
chase was  negotiated  principally  to  accommodate 

*  The  Tenure-of-Office  Act  was  repealed  by  Congress  in 
1887. 


FROM   1868  TO   1884  279 

the  Russian  Government,  which  alone  of  all 
the  governments  of  Europe  had  been  distinctly 
friendly  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  in  the  Civil 
War. 

Alaska  was  not  at  the  time  regarded  as  a 
specially  desirable  annexation,  as  its  resources 
were  then  unknown.  Its  seal  fisheries,  gold  de- 
posits, and  other  ascertained  natural  wealth  now 
make  it  a  valuable  territory. 

The  Presidency  of  General  Grant,  1869-77. — 
Four  days  after  the  close  of  the  great  trial  the 
Republican  Party  met  in  national  convention  to 
nominate  a  presidential  ticket.  The  man  of  the 
hour  was  General  Grant,  the  magnanimous  vic- 
tor of  Appomattox,  who  received  every  vote  in 
the  convention  on  the  first  ballot. 

The  Democrats  named  Horatio  Seymour,  of 
New  York.  Grant  won  by  a  large  electoral 
majority,  but  Seymour  polled  a  heavy  popular 
vote.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  carpet-bag  gov- 
ernments of  the  South,  Seymour  might  have  been 
elected.  The  Democratic  Party  was  reenforced 
by  the  "  war  Democrats  "  who  had  formerly 
supported  Lincoln,  and  by  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  Republicans  who  had  become  disgusted 
with  Congressional  Reconstruction. 

Grant's  Weakness  as  an  Executive. — Although 


28o  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

General  Grant  entered  on  the  office  of  Presi- 
dent with  the  best  of  intentions,  his  record  as 
a  civil  ruler  fell  far  below  the  plane  of  his 
achievements  as  a  military  leader. 

The  Republican  Party  had  enjoyed  a  monop- 
oly of  government  since  1861,  and  looked  for- 
ward to  its  indefinite  continuance.  No  political 
organization  enjoying  undisputed  supremacy 
and  confronted  with  every  opportunity  for  cor- 
rupt profit  can  long  remain  uncontaminated. 
The  Republican  Party  proved  no  exception  to 
this  rule.  Since  the  war  it  had  drifted  into  the 
hands  of  men  who  were  using  its  immense  pres- 
tige for  personal  ends  rather  than  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  public  interests. 

General  Grant  was  simple-hearted,  straight- 
forward, and  patriotic,  but  without  experience 
in  or  aptitude  for  political  life.  Upright  him- 
self, he  could  not  tell  the  difference  among  his 
fellows  between  an  honest  man  and  a  thief. 
Consequently  many  of  the  acts  and  policies  of 
his  administration  attracted  a  fire  of  criticism 
upon  the  party  which  would  have  been  impos- 
sible in  the  days  of  Lincoln.  He  was  nomi- 
nated in  obedience  to  unthinking  popular  clamor 
by  crafty  politicians,  who  saw  in  the  military 
idol  of  the  American  people  a  convenient  and 


FROM  1868  TO  1884  281 

certain  means  to  bring  themselves  into  power, 
and  in  his  popularity  an  impenetrable  shield  to 
cover  their  evil  deeds.  He  trusted  his  friends 
and  they  deceived  him. 

The  Republican  Party  Splits.— At  the  national 
convention  of  1872  the  regular  party  organi- 
zation renominated  General  Grant. 

Some  of  the  best  and  ablest  men  of  the  Re- 
publican faith,  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
way  things  had  been  going  for  the  last  four 
years,  met  at  Cincinnati  and  placed  in  the  field 
a  Liberal  Republican  ticket  headed  by  Horace 
Greeley,  the  gifted  but  erratic  editor  of  the  New 
York  Tribune.  Their  platform  denounced  civil 
corruption  and  the  disgraceful  carpet-bag  gov- 
ernments of  the  South,  the  scandals  of  which 
filled  the  civilized  world.  The  Liberals  were 
anxious  for  tariff  reform,  but  Greeley,  who  was 
the  most  extreme  protectionist  in  the  country, 
vetoed  every  suggestion  favoring  a  declaration 
to  that  effect,  and  the  convention  was  obliged  to 
yield.  The  tariff  issue  was  waived  by  a  plat- 
form resolution  which  left  the  matter  to  the 
Congressional  districts. 

The  Democrats  also  named  Horace  Greeley 
as  their  standard-bearer,  joining  forces  with  the 
Liberals  in  the  hope  of  defeating  the  regular 


282  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Republican  organization.  The  nomination  of 
Greeley  by  the  Democratic  Party  was  a  political 
incongruity.  It  was  brought  about  solely  for 
reasons  of  supposed  expediency.  By  no  man  in 
the  country  had  that  party  been  more  vehe- 
mently assailed  than  by  the  brilliant  editor  of 
the  Tribune^  the  gist  of  whose  abuse  was  popu- 
larly put  thus :  "  I  do  not  say  that  all  Demo- 
crats are  rascals,  but  it  is  undeniably  true  that 
all  rascals  are  Democrats."  His  availability  as 
a  candidate  was  thought  to  consist  in  the  two 
facts  that  he  had  never  advocated  Republican 
methods  of  Reconstruction  and  that  he  had 
given  bail  for  Jefferson  Davis.  These  consid- 
erations appealed  to  the  South,  which  desired 
above  all  things  else  to  recover  home  rule. 

General  Sherman,  writing  to  his  brother  from 
Paris,  said :  "  I  feel  amazed  to  see  the  turn  things 
have  taken.  Grant,  who  never  was  a  Repub- 
lican, is  your  candidate;  while  Greeley,  who 
never  was  a  Democrat,  but  quite  the  reverse,  is 
the  Democratic  candidate." 

The  result  of  the  combine  between  the  Lib- 
eral Republicans  and  the  Democrats  was  a 
crushing  disappointment  to  both.  Greeley  car- 
ried but  six  States,  all  of  them  Southern. 

A  number  of  causes  contributed  to  the  over- 


FROM   1868  TO   1884  283 

whelming  victory  of  General  Grant :  the  remem- 
brance of  his  military  triumphs  and  the  prestige 
of  his  name;  the  discontent  of  many  old-time 
Democrats  and  Republicans  over  their  unnatural 
alliance  and  incongruous  candidate  cost  Greeley 
thousands  of  votes,  as  also  did  the  powerful 
enemies  he  had  made  by  his  caustic  newspaper 
editorials.  The  combination  candidate  had  an 
eccentric  personality  which  easily  lent  itself  to 
caricature.  Although  a  great  man  and  a  gen- 
uine patriot,  he  was  made  to  appear  ridiculous 
by  his  clever  opponents. 

The  Reign  of  Graft. — The  immense  majorities 
for  Grant  imparted  to  the  victorious  Republi- 
cans a  sense  of  security  which  made  them  reck- 
less. The  four  years  that  followed  were  char- 
acterized by  general  demoralization.  "  Force 
bills  "  were  enacted  to  sustain  by  the  presence  of 
Federal  troops  the  corrup^^rpetbjLg^j^vern- 
ments  of  the  South.  The  "  Whiskey  Ring  "  de- 
frauded the  Government  of  millions  of  dollars 
through  the  collusion  of  internal  revenue  of- 
ficials. Congress  was  smirched  with  railroad 
scandals.  The  Indian  Bureau  was  the  willing 
tool  of  guilty  contractors  who  robbed  the  red 
men  and  cheated  the  Government  to  fill  their 
own  pockets. 


284  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Secretary  of  War,  not  to  be  outdone  by 
the  rest,  joined  in  the  scramble  for  illicit  gains. 
He  was  impeached,  but  escaped  trial  and  con- 
viction by  resigning  his  office. 

The  elevation  of  General  Grant  to  the  presi- 
dency was  a  mistake,  but  the  American  people 
have  long  since  forgiven  the  tragic  blunders 
which  form  so  sad  a  feature  of  his  adminis- 
trations. They  remember  only  his  magnificent 
services  on  the  field,  and  treasure  the  memory 
of  the  incomparable  soldier  who  brought  to 
glorious  issue  the  greatest  civil  war  in  history. 

Patriotic  Achievement. — The  Grant  adminis- 
trations, however,  were  not  devoid  of  substan- 
tial benefit  and  triumph.  One  of  General 
Grant's  best  services  to  his  country  was  the  ad- 
justment of  the  u  Alabama  Claims."  During 
the  war  the  British  Government  had  permitted 
Confederate  ships  to  be  built  and  equipped  in 
British  ports.  As  these  vessels  were  intended 
by  the  Confederate  Government  to  destroy 
Northern  shipping  and  commerce,  the  action  of 
Great  Britain  was  a  breach  of  international  law 
which  imposes  upon  nations  not  at  war  the  duty 
of  treating  impartially  nations  which  are  at  war 
with  each  other. 

The  most  destructive  of  these  ships  was  the 


FROM   1868  TO   1884  285 

Alabama.  With  one  war  of  huge  proportions 
already  on  its  hands,  the  United  States  could 
not  at  the  time  afford  to  run  the  almost  cer- 
tain risk  of  becoming  Involved  in  hostilities 
with  Great  Britain,  never  too  friendly  to  the 
North.  But  after  the  restoration  of  peace  our 
Government  demanded  of  England  an  apology 
and  a  cash  indemnity  for  the  damages  sustained 
by  Northern  commerce  by  reason  of  British  par- 
tiality to  the  Confederacy.  The  matter  was 
submitted  to  a  Board  of  Arbitration  which  met 
at  Geneva  in  1871  and  remained  in  session 
nearly  a  year.  The  amount  of  the  American 
claims  proved  extravagant,  but  the  Board  de- 
cided that  England  had  failed  in  her  duty  as 
a  neutral  nation,  and  awarded  the  United  States 
$15,500,000. 

The  arbitration  of  the  "  Alabama  Claims  " 
was  a  pronounced  step  in  the  moral  advance- 
ment of  nations.  The  memorable  precedent 
established  by  these  enlightened  and  powerful 
states  in  thus  submitting  to  peaceful  process  of 
settlement  an  irritating  question  gave  impulse 
throughout  the  civilized  world  to  the  principle 
of  conciliation. 

The  Resumption  Act. — During  the  Civil  War 
the  Government  had  been  compelled  to  issue 


286  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

large  amounts  of  paper  money  in  the  form  of 
treasury  notes,  or  "  greenbacks,"  as  they  were 
popularly  called,  to  meet  the  extraordinary  ex- 
penses of  the  war.  Although  these  notes  de- 
preciated in  value  to  some  extent,  there  was  no 
serious  doubt  of  the  Government's  ability  ulti- 
mately to  redeem  its  promises  in  hard  money. 
Nearly  ten  years  had  elapsed  since  the  surrender 
of  Lee.  The  credit  of  the  nation  and  the  busi- 
ness interests  of  the  country  alike  demanded  the 
return  to  a  hard  money  basis.  In  January, 
1875,  Congress  passed  an  act  setting  a  date  for 
the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  four  years 
ahead,  January  i,  1879. 

The  Centennial. — The  year  1876  is  memorable 
for  the  celebration  of  the  Republic's  one  hun- 
dredth birthday.  In  spite  of  difficulty  and  dan- 
ger the  United  States  had  discredited  every 
gloomy  prophecy  of  failure  made  by  enemies 
or  sceptics  a  century  before,  and  had  established 
a  record  for  material  achievement  and  moral 
progress  unparalleled  by  older  nations. 

The  city  of  Philadelphia,  which  had  been  the 
scene  of  the  Republic's  birth,  was  fittingly  chosen 
as  the  place  for  celebration,  which  took  the 
form  of  an  international  exposition.  Congress 
loaned  money  and  the  States  made  liberal 


FROM   1868  TO   1884  287 

appropriations.  Nearly  every  country  in  the 
civilized  world  responded  to  the  President's  in- 
vitation to  participate  in  the  first  international 
fair  ever  held  on  American  soil.  More  than 
two  hundred  buildings  were  erected  in  Fair- 
mount  Park,  some  of  which  still  remain. 

The  bewildering  variety  of  the  American  dis- 
play gave  Europe  an  object-lesson  in  the  wealth, 
the  intelligence,  and  the  enterprise  of  this  coun- 
try, while  the  European  art  exhibits  impressed 
the  intensely  practical  American  with  the  more 
delicate  refinements  of  civilization  for  which  in 
his  eager  devotion  to  material  interests  he  had 
as  yet  shown  little  consideration. 

Thus  by  affording  opportunity  for  friendly 
participation  in  a  mutual  undertaking,  the  Cen- 
tennial promoted  fraternity  among  men  and 
nations.  The  Northerner  and  the  Southerner, 
lately  estranged  by  civil  war,  the  Easterner  and 
the  Westerner,  the  American  and  the  European, 
met  together  on  common  ground  for  better  ac- 
quaintance and  interchange  of  ideas. 

The  Contested  Election  of  1876. — Another 
event  of  the  Centennial  year,  in  striking  con- 
trast to  the  harmonious  spirit  of  the  Exposi- 
tion, nearly  overthrew  the  foundations  of  the 
Republic. 


288  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

There  was  a  very  strong  sentiment  for  reform 
in  Government  service  which  the  Democrats  in 
1876  made  the  key-note  of  their  party  platform. 

For  the  first  time  since  the  days  of  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  a  truly  great  Democratic  leader 
came  to  the  front  in  the  person  of  Samuel 
J.  Tilden,  Governor  of  New  York.  He  had 
achieved  national  prominence  in  1871  hy  bring- 
ing to  the  bar  of  justice  the  corrupt  "  Tweed 
Ring  "  which  had  debauched  New  York  City, 
and  by  his  exposure  while  Governor  of  the 
scarcely  less  notorious  "  Canal  Ring "  which 
was  exploiting  the  State.  The  Democratic 
Party  now  nominated  him  for  the  presidency. 

The  Republican  nominee  was  Rutherford  B. 
Hayes,  of  Ohio,  a  thoroughly  honest  and  capa- 
ble man,  though  unknown  outside  his  State,  of 
which  he  was  Governor.  The  party  was  clearly 
on  the  defensive.  As  the  accusations  against 
it  could  not  be  successfully  refuted,  the  cam- 
paign managers  endeavored  to  detract  public 
attention  from  the  discreditable  features  of  its 
record  by  raising  a  louder  cry  against  the  Demo- 
crats, denouncing  them  as  enemies  of  the  Re- 
public who  had  opposed  the  war  and  who,  if 
intrusted  with  power,  would  put  the  South 
again  in  the  saddle  and  reenslave  the  negro. 


FROM   1868  TO   1884  289 

The  election  was  close.  Of  the  Northern 
States,  Tilden  carried  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Connecticut,  and  Indiana,  every  Southern  State, 
and  had  a  popular  majority  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  votes.  This  gave  him  appar- 
ently two  hundred  and  three  electoral  votes  and 
Hayes  only  one  hundred  and  sixty-six. 

The  morning  after  election  the  newspapers 
announced  the  election  of  Tilden.  The  Repub- 
licans, seeing  things  slipping  from  their  control, 
at  once  claimed  South  Carolina,  Florida,  and 
Louisiana,  on  the  ground  that  Republican  votes 
had  not  been  fairly  counted.  As  these  States 
were  still  under  carpet-bag  regime,  their  return- 
ing boards  were  obedient  to  Republican  direc- 
tion. Enough  Democratic  votes  were  thrown 
out  to  insure  Republican  majorities,  and  it  was 
proclaimed  that  Hayes  had  been  elected  by  one 
hundred  and  eighty-five  to  one  hundred  and 
eighty-four  electoral  votes. 

It  is  said  on  high  authority  that  the  Repub- 
lican leaders  had  bargained  with  the  Demo- 
crats of  these  three  States  to  withdraw  Federal 
troops  and  give  the  Democrats  entire  domestic 
control  in  exchange  for  their  electoral  votes.* 

*  A.  K.  McClure,  "Our  Presidents  and  How  We  Make 
Them."     New  York,  1900. 


290  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Democrats  everywhere  raised  the  cry  of 
fraud.  Popular  excitement  was  intense  and 
civil  war  threatened.  Grant  strengthened  mili- 
tary defences  around  Washington. 

The  Electoral  Commission. — The  people  looked 
to  Congress  for  peaceful  solution,  but  the  Sen- 
ate was  Republican  and  the  House  Democratic. 
At  length  both  branches  agreed  to  refer  the  dis- 
puted election  to  a  commission  of  five  Senators, 
five  Representatives,  and  five  Justices  of  the  Su- 
preme Court.  Eight  of  them  were  Republi- 
cans and  seven  Democrats.  The  Commission 
was  a  partisan  body  and  voted  as  such,  deciding 
for  Hayes  by  a  majority  of  one. 

Although  the  decision  of  the  Electoral  Com- 
mission was  partisan,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
it  was  wise.  Had  the  result  been  different  a 
serious  blow  would  have  been  struck  at  the 
rights  of  the  States.  The  real  issue  of  the 
dispute  was  not  which  party  had  received  an 
actual  majority,  but  which  set  of  electors  had 
received  the  legal  sanction  of  State  authority. 
The  Commission  decided  that  it  had  no  right 
to  go  behind  the  returns  as  certified  by  the 
States. 

A  few  years  later,  in  1887,  Congress  passed 
a  law  which  enforced  this  finding  by  throwing 


FROM   1868  TO   1884  291 

upon  each  State  the  responsibility  of  determin- 
ing its  own  vote. 

The  Hayes  Administration  was  marked  by  use- 
ful accomplishment,  and  is  entitled  to  strong 
indorsement.  The  President  was  the  foe  of 
corruptionists.  Able  statesmen  were  selected 
for  Cabinet  positions.  So  capably  did  John 
Sherman,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  manage 
the  national  finances  that  when  January  i,  1879, 
arrived,  the  day  set  for  the  resumption  of  specie 
payments,  the  people  had  so  much  confidence  in 
the  Government  that  few  notes  were  presented 
for  redemption. 

The  two  great  parties  were  about  evenly  bal- 
anced. During  the  first  two  years  the  House 
was  Democratic.  The  last  two  years  saw  the 
Democrats  in  full  control  of  Congress,  though 
the  presence  of  a  Republican  President  pre- 
vented partisan  legislation. 

Government  scandals  came  to  an  end  and 
the  wounds  inflicted  by  the  Civil  War  and 
Reconstruction  began  to  heal.  The  President 
withdrew  the  last  of  the  Federal  troops  from 
the  Southern  States,  and  for  the  first  time 
since  the  Civil  War  the  South  was  left  to 
take  care  of  itself.  It  was  the  assurance 
that  this  would  be  done  that  induced  the 


292  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Democrats  to  acquiesce  in  the  election  of  Mr. 
Hayes. 

The  country  was  highly  prosperous,  and  from 
1875  to  J883  commercial  development  is  the 
most  striking  feature  of  American  history. 
Cities  and  towns  grew  with  rapidity,  railroads 
began  to  consolidate  into  great  systems,  and 
giant  corporations  appeared  which  centralized 
business  interests  in  the  hands  of  comparatively 
few  men.  Labor  became  restless.  In  1877 
there  were  great  railroad  strikes  in  Pittsburgh, 
Baltimore,  and  Martinsburg,  attended  by  mob 
violence  and  "  sympathetic "  strikes  in  other 
branches  of  industry,  the  most  serious  disturb- 
ance occurring  in  the  coal  regions  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  spreading  to  West  Virginia  and  Illi- 
nois. The  miners  had  the  sympathy  of  the 
public  and  gained  an  advance  in  wages. 

Garfield  and  Arthur. — As  the  year  1880  ap- 
proached the  Democrats  looked  forward  to  a 
victory.  They  nominated  a  promising  candi- 
date in  General  Winfield  Scott  Hancock,  one  of 
the  most  picturesque  figures  of  the  Civil  War, 
called  u  Hancock  the  Superb  "  on  account  of  his 
gallant  conduct,  his  chivalrous  nature,  and  the 
magnificence  of  his  personal  appearance. 

The  Republicans  also  named  a  soldier,  Gen- 


FROM   1868  TO   1884  293 

eral  James  A.  Garfield,  of  Ohio,  one  of  the 
many  public  men  in  American  life  who  have 
risen  from  the  commonest  level  to  high  political 
station. 

The  campaign  was  a  singularly  clean  one. 
On  the  popular  vote  the  two  candidates  were 
almost  even,  but  Garfield  won  in  the  Electoral 
College. 

The  new  President  had  not  been  at  the  helm 
of  state  four  months  when  he  was  shot  by  a  dis- 
appointed office-seeker,  who  was  probably  in- 
sane. Garfield's  life  hung  long  in  the  balance. 
He  suffered  intensely,  but  never  complained. 
On  the  night  of  September  19,  1881,  he  died 
at  Elberon,  N.  J.,  near  Long  Branch. 

Chester  A.  Arthur,  who  became  President  on 
the  death  of  his  chief,  had  been  a  New  York 
society  leader  and  politician.  His  great  ability 
and  wisdom  were  not  realized  at  the  time,  but 
he  has  gone  down  in  history  as  one  of  the  best 
Presidents  the  country  has  had.  He  vetoed  ex- 
travagant legislation  and  did  his  best  to  secure 
the  prosecution  and  conviction  of  corrupt  of- 
ficials who  had  defrauded  the  Government  dur- 
ing the  Grant  administrations. 

It  was  President  Arthur  who  started  the  mod- 
ern American  navy. 


294  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

But  the  Arthur  administration  is  chiefly 
memorable  for  the  progress  of  civil  service  re- 
form. Ever  since  the  days  of  Jackson  the 
"  spoils  system  "  had  held  full  sway  with  the 
consent  and  approval  of  politicians,  who  used 
the  public  offices  and  clerkships  to  build  up  and 
insure  their  personal  following.  In  1883  Con- 
gress, in  deference  to  public  opinion  on  the  mat- 
ter of  arbitrary  removals  from  office  for  parti- 
san reasons,  passed  a  law  classifying  certain 
offices  in  the  Government  service  under  a  system 
of  examination  and  merit.  President  Arthur 
enforced  the  act  with  sincerity  and  courage. 
Since  then  nearly  every  branch  of  the  service 
has  been  protected  by  law. 

The  tariff  was  now  becoming  the  paramount 
question.  Activity  of  discussion  and  an  unsatis- 
factory tariff  act  passed  in  1883  shadowed  the 
coming  issue  between  the  two  great  parties. 


CHAPTER    XXI 
THE  OPENING  OF  A  NEW  ERA 

THE  election  of  1884  was  the  most  mem- 
orable  since    1860.      It  marked  the 
final  abandonment  by  both  the  great 
parties  of  the  worn-out  issues  of  the  Civil  War 
and  the  substitution  of  questions  of  public  ex- 
penditure, the  currency,  the  tariff,  and  the  trusts. 
The  Democracy  Returns  to  Power. —  For  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century  the  Republican  Party  had 
held  the  reins  of  government.     It  had  saved  the 
Union,  destroyed  slavery,  maintained  the  credit 
of  the  nation  through  critical  years,  and  given 
permanent  triumph  to  the  sentiment  and  prin- 
ciple of  nationality  over  sectionalism.    But  along 
with  its  magnificent  achievements  it  had  com- 
mitted some  grievous  mistakes. 

The  Democratic  Party,  though  always  de- 
feated in  presidential  contests,  had  invariably 
polled  a  heavy  vote.  In  1876  it  had  a  popular 
majority,  in  1880  it  fell  only  a  few  thousand 
below  the  Republican  vote.  From  1875  to 

395 


296  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

1 88 1  it  controlled  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. In  1884  the  party  faced  its  quadrennial 
struggle  confident  of  success. 

The  Republican  nominee  was  James  G. 
Elaine.  Born  in  Pennsylvania  of  Scotch-Irish 
stock,  he  had  emigrated  to  Maine  in  his  youth. 
He  had  been  Speaker  of  the  House,  United 
States  Senator,  Secretary  of  State,  and  was  a 
debater  of  unusual  strength.  He  was  popular, 
renowned,  magnetic,  eloquent,  brilliant.  But 
he  had  made  powerful  enemies  in  his  own  party, 
chief  and  most  vindictive  among  them  being 
Roscoe  Conkling,  United  States  Senator  from 
New  York. 

Against  this  versatile  and  famous  chieftain 
the  Democrats  pitted  Grover  Cleveland,  the 
Governor  of  New  York.  Cleveland  had  proved 
himself  to  be  an  honest,  industrious  public  ser- 
vant with  very  positive  convictions  of  official 
duty  and  ample  courage  to  stand  by  them.  As 
Mayor  of  Buffalo  and  Governor  of  his  State  he 
had  won  the  esteem  of  good  men  by  his  per- 
sistent hostility  to  bad  legislation. 

The  campaign  was  one  of  the  bitterest  in 
American  political  history,  and  the  election  was 
in  doubt  for  days  after  the  polls  closed.  When 
at  last  the  result  was  known  the  returns  an- 


THE  OPENING  OF  A  NEW  ERA         297 

nounced  Republican  defeat.  Again,  as  in  1844 
and  1848,  New  York  turned  the  scale.  Senator 
Conkling,  who  hated  Elaine,  could  not  be  pre- 
vailed upon  to  support  his  party's  choice.  In 
Conkling's  home  district  the  falling  off  from 
the  normal  Republican  vote  was  greater  than 
Cleveland's  majority  in  the  State.  The  reform 
element  in  the  Republican  Party,  attracted  by 
Cleveland's  splendid  record,  rallied  to  his  sup- 
port.* 

The  First  Administration  of  Cleveland. —The 
Republicans,  who  by  reason  of  their  long  as- 
cendancy had  come  to  regard  their  party  as  in- 
vincible, were  thunderstruck  at  the  election  of  a 
Democratic  President.  Such  a  thing  had  not 
happened  since  the  election  of  Buchanan  in 
1856.  Prophecies  of  disaster  were  heard  on 
every  hand.  "  The  South  is  again  in  the  sad- 
dle, the  work  of  the  war  is  undone,  the  negro 
will  be  reenslaved,"  said  the  alarmists. 

Mr.  Cleveland  promptly  disabused  the  public 
mind  of  its  baseless  fears.  The  tone  of  his  In- 
augural Address  was  lofty.  "  Public  office  is  a 


k  The  Republican  reformers  who  "bolted"  their  party 
ticket  to  support  Cleveland  were  derisively  called  "Mug- 
wumps"— a  name  that  has  since  been  generally  applied  to 
those  who  vote  independently. 


298  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

public  trust/'  he  declared,  and  he  lived  up  to  the 
spirit  of  his  words.  His  Cabinet  was  one  of 
exceptional  breadth  and  ability,  chosen  without 
sectional  bias.  Some  of  its  members  had  fol- 
lowed Grant  and  others  Lee  in  the  war  between 
the  States. 

Politically  the  Cleveland  administration  was 
a  quiet  season.  The  Senate  was  Republican, 
and  therefore  partisan  legislation  was  impos- 
sible, though  much  useful  legislation  was  ac- 
complished by  the  cooperation  of  both  parties. 

Under  the  efficient  direction  of  William  C. 
Whitney,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  the  naval  re- 
forms begun  by  President  Arthur  were  con- 
tinued and  the  old  wooden  vessels  further  re- 
placed by  modern  steel  ships. 

The  Presidential  Succession  Act — 1886. — The 
death  of  Vice-president  Thomas  A.  Hendricks 
in  1885  awakened  the  country  to  the  necessity 
of  a  change  in  the  system  of  presidential  suc- 
cession. As  the  law  then  stood,  in  case  of  the 
death  of  the  President  and  Vice-president  the 
President  of  the  Senate  would  succeed  to  the 
Executive  office,  and  after  him  the  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives.  But  this  ar- 
rangement might  give  the  presidency  to  the 
party  that  had  been  unsuccessful  at  the  polls, 


THE  OPENING  OF  A  NEW  ERA         299 

and  thus  turn  to  defeat  the  victory  of  the  party 
that  had  carried  the  election.  Accordingly, 
Congress  passed  a  law  providing  that  the  line 
of  succession  should  include  only  Cabinet  of- 
ficers in  the  following  order:  the  Secretaries  of 
State,  Treasury,  War,  the  Attorney-general, 
the  Postmaster-general,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  Of  course 
these  heads  of  departments  must  be  Constitu- 
tionally eligible  to  the  presidency  to  come  under 
the  act. 

Labor  Troubles. — In  order  to  make  better 
terms  with  employers,  labor  unions  had  been 
formed  by  workingmen  in  various  trades  at  an 
early  date.  They  did  not,  however,  achieve 
much  importance  until  after  the  Civil  War. 
In  1886  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
united  many  of  these  special  trades  unions  in 
a  national  body  for  the  purpose  of  more 
effectively  protecting  the  interests  of  the  wage- 
earners. 

The  labor  unions  were  determined  to  win 
"  recognition  of  the  union,"  that  is,  to  compel 
employers  to  deal  with  their  workmen  through 
the  unions  instead  of  individually,  since  better 
advantages  could  be  secured  by  collective  action. 
They  also  demanded  shorter  hours,  more  pay, 


300  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  the  exclusion  of  non-union  men  from  em- 
ployment. The  American  Federation  of  Labor 
had  authority  to  order  and  enforce  general 
strikes  when  employers  refused  to  grant  the  de- 
mands of  a  particular  union. 

The  new  organization  at  once  made  its  power 
felt.  The  year  1886  saw  the  beginning  of  an 
industrial  warfare  that  has  continued  ever  since, 
sometimes  rampant  and  aggressive,  sometimes 
quietly  intense,  always  persistent  and  determined. 
Nearly  every  branch  of  industry  was  affected, 
but  chiefly  the  railroads.  In  Chicago  and  St. 
Louis  there  were  great  strikes  accompanied  by 
mob  violence. 

Anarchist  Riots. — These  labor  disturbances 
were  aggravated  by  a  new  foreign  element 
which  for  several  years  had  been  pouring  into 
the  country.  The  earlier  immigrants  to  the 
United  States  had  come  from  the  British  Isles 
and  the  north  of  Europe.  They  were  intelli- 
gent, law-abiding  people  who  quickly  caught 
the  spirit  of  American  customs  and  institutions. 
After  the  Civil  War  a  heavy  tide  of  immigra- 
tion set  in,  made  up  of  Italians,  Poles,  Hun- 
garians, and  Portuguese.  Many  of  them  were 
anarchists  who  were  intolerant  of  law  and  hated 
government  of  every  sort,  which  they  identified 


THE  OPENING  OF  A  NEW  ERA         301 

with  despotism  irrespective  of  form  or  actuat- 
ing spirit. 

On  the  night  of  May  3,  1886,  about  fourteen 
hundred  anarchists  assembled  in  Haymarket 
Square,  Chicago,  to  listen  to  violent  speeches 
advocating  the  overthrow  of  government.  When 
the  police  ordered  the  crowd  to  disperse  a  bomb 
was  thrown  which  exploded,  killing  seven  police- 
men. The  leaders  of  the  mob  were  arrested  by 
the  Chicago  authorities,  tried,  and  convicted. 
Some  were  executed,  and  others  given  long 
terms  of  imprisonment. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Act. — For  many 
years  the  railroads  had  been  allowed  to  develop 
in  freedom.  Because  they  distributed  popula- 
tion through  hitherto  unsettled  regions,  both 
Federal  and  State  governments  had  encouraged 
their  construction,  giving  them  rights  of  way 
and  grants  of  land  or  money.  But  the  rail- 
roads had  abused  their  powers.  In  the  matter 
of  freight  rates  they  had  discriminated  unfairly 
between  shippers  by  secretly  granting  much 
lower  charges  to  some  than  to  others,  thus  en- 
abling favored  shippers  to  drive  their  less  fort- 
unate rivals  from  the  markets.  At  length  the 
public  became  so  indignant  at  the  methods  of 
the  railroads  that  Congress  determined  to  exer- 


302  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

else  the  power  which  the  Constitution  gives  it 
to  regulate  commerce  between  the  States.  In 
1887  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act  was  passed, 
which  forbade  these  and  kindred  practices,  and 
also  prohibited  such  combinations  between  rail- 
roads as  resulted  in  the  general  injury  of  other 
business  interests.  A  permanent  Commission 
was  appointed  to  investigate  charges  against  the 
railroads  and  render  decisions,  subject  to  review 
by  the  courts.  Its  powers  have  since  been  in- 
creased. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Act  has  lessened, 
though  it  has  not  cured,  the  evils  which  it  was 
designed  to  remedy. 

Cleveland  and  Civil  Service  Reform. — The  main 
trouble  with  the  Jacksonian  spoils  system  was 
that  it  encouraged  partisanship  too  often  at  the 
expense  of  patriotism.  The  party  might  stand 
for  bad  principles  or  selfish  leadership,  but  men 
must  support  it  if  they  would  hold  office  under 
the  Government. 

Under  General  Grant's  administration  Con- 
gress had  authorized  the  creation  of  a  Civil 
Service  Commission,  which  established  a  system 
of  competitive  examinations  for  appointments 
to  office.  After  three  years,  however,  the  work 
of  the  Commission  was  abandoned  because 


THE  OPENING  OF  A  NEW  ERA         303 

Congress,  which  was  not  in  sympathy  with  its 
aims,  refused  to  vote  money  for  its  continuance. 

President  Hayes  tried  to  reestablish  the  sys- 
tem, but  failed,  owing  to  the  determined  oppo- 
sition of  politicians  and  the  indifference  of  the 
public. 

Garfield's  assassination  was  indirectly  due  to 
the  spoils  system,  since  it  was  the  work  of  a 
crazed  office-seeker.  It  brought  civil  service 
reform  again  to  the  forefront,  and  a  law  was 
passed  in  1883  which  President  Arthur  strictly 
enforced. 

The  Independent  Republicans  who  supported 
Cleveland  in  1884  did  so  because  of  his  well- 
known  friendliness  to  reform  and  his  hostility 
to  the  spoils  system,  as  evidenced  by  his  record 
as  Mayor  of  Buffalo  and  Governor  of  New 
York,  and  by  his  public  utterances. 

As  President,  Mr.  Cleveland  proved  faithful 
to  his  earlier  principles,  greatly  extending  the 
civil  service.  But  he  could  not  disappoint  office- 
seekers  indiscriminately;  the  Democratic  Party 
was  not  ready  for  so  sweeping  a  departure  from 
historic  precedent.  Hence  he  failed  to  satisfy 
the  reformers  who  expected  him  to  destroy  the 
spoils  system  immediately,  root  and  branch. 
While  he  would  not  turn  out  a  Republican 


304  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

office-holder  simply  because  he  happened  to  be 
a  Republican,  and  appoint  a  Democrat  in  his 
place,  as  most  Presidents  had  done  since  Jack- 
son's time,  yet  he  distributed  a  large  number 
of  postmasterships.  The  result  was  that  nobody 
was  suited.  The  Democrats  were  displeased 
because  they  did  not  get  more  offices,  and  the 
civil-service  reformers  found  fault  because  the 
President  did  not  do  more  reforming. 

Cleveland's  Famous  Tariff  Message. — In  dis- 
cussing the  tariff  it  is  necessary  to  remember 
that  the  term  "  protection  "  has  a  somewhat  dif- 
ferent meaning  to-day  from  that  which  it  had 
when  advocated  by  Henry  Clay  and  the  Whigs, 
and  by  the  Republican  Party  itself  for  the  first 
thirty  years  of  its  history. 

Prior  to  the  war  protection  meant  an  import 
tax  sufficiently  high  to  exclude  foreign  goods 
until  American  industries  which  were  engaged 
in  the  same  lines  of  manufacture  were  strong 
enough  to  stand  foreign  competition.  Its  pur- 
pose was  to  encourage  "  infant  "  industries  un- 
til they  could  become  self-supporting.  It  was 
never  intended  by  early  advocates  to  continue 
the  protective  policy  indefinitely. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  the  Govern- 
ment was  compelled  to  levy  many  new  taxes  in 


THE  OPENING  OF  A  NEW  ERA         305 

order  to  get  money  to  carry  on  the  struggle  for 
the  Union.  These  taxes  fell  heavily  upon  the 
manufacturers.  To  ease  them  of  their  unusual 
burden,  Congress  passed  a  high-tariff  act  which 
placed  heavy  duties  upon  the  goods  of  foreign 
competitors.  This  not  only  relieved  the  manu- 
facturers, but  it  also  put  more  money  into  the 
national  treasury  by  the  simple  device  of  raising 
the  duties. 

After  the  restoration  of  peace  most  of  these 
extraordinary  taxes  were  repealed,  but  the  war 
tariff  continued.  The  manufacturers  who  had 
built  up  a  monopoly  of  the  home  trade  by  the 
aid  of  the  war  tariff  were  unwilling  to  return  to 
the  moderate  schedules  that  prevailed  before 
the  war. 

One  result  of  high  protection  was  the  accu- 
mulation of  a  large  surplus  in  the  treasury. 
Republican  Presidents  from  Grant  to  Arthur 
had  deplored  a  steadily  increasing  surplus  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  a  temptation  to  extrava- 
gance in  legislation.  Each  of  them  had  recom- 
mended lowering  the  duties. 

In  his  annual  message  to  Congress  in  1887 
President  Cleveland  boldly  attacked  protection. 
He  accused  it  of  fostering  monopoly  by  destroy- 
ing competition,  of  encouraging  legislative  ex- 


3o6  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

travagance  by  creating  a  surplus,  and  of  op- 
pressing the  poor  through  the  maintenance  of 
high  prices. 

As  the  time  for  the  next  presidential  election 
approached,  the  Republicans  had  very  little 
campaign  material  to  use  against  the  party  in 
power.  The  Senate  being  Republican  they  had 
necessarily  shared  in  whatever  legislation  had 
been  enacted.  But  the  President's  message 
gave  them  their  cue.  The  party  rallied  to  the 
defence  of  the  principle  which  Cleveland  had 
attacked.  They  not  only  opposed  lowering  the 
existing  duties,  but  they  advocated  raising  them 
still  higher. 

The  Election  of  1888. — The  Democrats  re- 
nominated  Cleveland,  and  fought  the  campaign 
on  the  lines  of  his  tariff  message.  The  Repub- 
licans nominated  Benjamin  Harrison,  grandson 
of  a  former  President,  and  declared  for  protec- 
tion. They  claimed  that  it  resulted  in  better 
wages  and  more  general  employment,  provided 
a  home  market  for  domestic  producers,  and  pro- 
tected American  labor  against  foreign  compe- 
tition. 

The  campaign  was  clean,  dignified,  and  intel- 
lectual. Cleveland  had  a  popular  plurality  over 
the  Republican  candidate  of  about  one  hundred 


THE  OPENING  OF  A  NEW  ERA         307 

and  ten  thousand,  but  Harrison  won  on  the  elec- 
toral vote.  Once  more,  as  in  1844,  1848,  and 
1884,  New  York  was  the  pivotal  State,  electing 
a  Democratic  Governor,  but  giving  its  thirty-six 
presidential  votes  to  Harrison. 

The  Harrison  Administration. — The  most  im- 
portant events  of  President  Harrison's  term 
took  the  form  of  three  laws  passed  in  1890 
dealing  with  the  tariff,  the  trusts,  and  the  cur- 
rency, issues  which  were  more  and  more  absorb- 
ing public  attention.  They  are  important  be- 
cause they  show  the  directions  in  which  the  par- 
ties were  drifting  and  what  the  people  were 
thinking  about. 

The  McKinley  Tariff.*— The  success  of  the  Re- 
publicans, which  was  due  chiefly  to  the  treachery 
of  a  Democratic  faction  in  New  York,  was 
interpreted  by  themselves  to  mean  that  the 
country  was  ready  for  more  protection.  A  tariff 
measure  which  became  law  October  i,  1890, 
raised  the  average  of  duties  beyond  any  point 
they  had  ever  yet  reached.  Mr.  Elaine  strongly 
counselled  against  passing  the  McKinley  bill, 

*  Tariff  laws  are  always  named  after  the  Chairman  of 
the  House  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  which  is  the 
Committee  intrusted  with  the  framing  of  such  measures. 
In  1890  the  Chairman  was  William  McKinley,  of  Ohio. 


3o8  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

predicting  that  if  it  were  enacted  into  law  it 
would  defeat  the  party  in  the  end.  His  advice 
was  disregarded. 

For  the  first  time  the  most  common  articles 
of  household  necessity  were  placed  on  the  pro- 
tected list.  Instantly  prices  rose,  but  wages,  de- 
spite campaign  promises,  remained  stationary. 
The  people  were  indignant.  At  the  Congres- 
sional elections  in  November  the  Republicans 
were  defeated  and  a  Democratic  House  was  re- 
turned. But  the  Senate  being  Republican,  re- 
vision of  tariff  schedules  was  impossible. 

The  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law,  1890.— A  strong 
popular  protest  had  been  raised  against  the 
great  combinations,  such  as  the  Standard  Oil 
Company,  the  Sugar  Trust,  and  the  powerful 
railroads,  whose  methods,  often  unfair  and  ille- 
gal, had  done  much  to  destroy  competition  in 
business.  Senator  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  framed  a 
law  empowering  the  courts  to  declare  void  any 
contract  which  came  before  them  that  was  in- 
jurious to  public  interests  and  in  restraint  of 
trade.  The  statute  remained  a  dead  letter  until 
1904,  when  a  decision  of  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  dissolved  the  Northern  Securities 
Company,  a  combination  of  two  great  railroads 
in  the  North-west. 


CHAPTER    XXII 

THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS 

WE  now  come  to  the  only  "  third  par- 
ty "    in    the    history   of   American 
politics   that    has    ever    exerted   a 
profound    influence    upon    the    events    of    its 
day. 

The  Rise  of  the  Populists. — For  some  years  the 
currency  question  had  been  steadily  forging  to 
the  front.  Agitation  centred  in  the  West  and 
South,  which  had  not  shared  to  a  great  extent 
in  the  prosperity  of  the  East,  and  where  the 
spirit  of  discontent  and  unrest  was  therefore 
strong.  The  South  had  not  recovered  from  the 
effects  of  the  war,  and  the  West  had  not  yet 
developed  the  industrial  strength  that  had  made 
the  East  wealthy,  though  its  population  had  in- 
creased with  amazing  rapidity.* 

*  Six  new  Western  States  were  admitted  in  two  years : 
North  Dakota,  South  Dakota,  Montana,  and  Washington 
in  1889,  Idaho  and  Wyoming  in  1890.  Oklahoma  Territory, 
which  had  been  carved  out  of  Indian  Territory  in  1866  and 
reserved  for  civilized  Indians  and  freedmen,  was  thrown  open 
to  white  settlers  in  1890. 

309 


310  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Much  of  the  Western  farming-land  was  mort- 
gaged to  Eastern  capitalists,  to  whom  was  at- 
tributed the  greater  part  of  the  ills  of  which  the 
West  and  South  complained.  This  feeling  of 
dissatisfaction  expressed  itself  in  the  form  of  a 
political  organization,  which  soon  grew  into  the 
People's,  or  Populist,  Party.  This  party  was 
opposed  to  protection  and  also  to  some  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  American  commercial 
life.  It  stood  for  Government  ownership  of  the 
railroads  and  of  other  public  utilities  which  the 
great  corporations  had  monopolized,  and  upon 
the  control  of  which  they  had  built  up  their 
extraordinary  power.  But  what  gave  the  Popu- 
list Party  its  peculiar  hold  upon  the  masses  of 
people  in  the  South  and  West  was  its  persistent 
advocacy  of  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of 
silver. 

The  Free  Silver  Movement. — For  many  cen- 
turies the  civilized  world  used  gold  and  silver 
as  standard  money  in  legal  proportions  varying 
as  the  market  value  of  the  metals  changed. 
This  system  proved  unsatisfactory,  owing  to  the 
difficulty  in  keeping  the  legal  and  the  com- 
mercial ratios  the  same.  By  1873  most  of  the 
civilized  nations,  including  the  United  States, 
had  abandoned  bimetallism  and  adopted  the 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    311 

gold  standard,  though  continuing  to  use  sil- 
ver as  subsidiary  currency  at  the  ratio  of  16 
to  i. 

This  anti-silver  legislation  inevitably  cheap- 
ened the  commercial  value  of  the  white  metal 
and  made  the  silver  mines  of  the  West  less  profit- 
able to  their  owners,  who  thereupon  demanded 
that  the  Government  restore  silver  as  full  stand- 
ard money. 

The  demands  of  the  mine-owners  were  sec- 
onded by  a  large  class  of  people  who  believed 
that  national  prosperity  depended  upon  having 
a  greater  amount  of  money  in  circulation. 
They  were  convinced  that  the  bankers  and  capi- 
talists of  the  East  were  trying  to  monopolize  the 
supply  of  standard  money,  and  that  the  only  way 
to  defeat  their  plot  was  to  make  money  so  plen- 
tiful that  Wall  Street  *  could  not  "  corner  "  the 
supply.  This  they  thought  could  best  be  done 
by  going  back  to  the  double  standard  and  mak- 
ing silver  full  legal  tender. 

The  Populist  Party  was  the  recognized  cham- 
pion of  these  ideas,  though  many  Democrats  in 

*  A  street  in  New  York  City  where  capitalists  do  business. 
Because  it  was  the  financial  centre  of  the  country  Wall  Street 
became  a  synonym  for  the  money  power  which  it  repre- 
sented, 


312  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  West  and  South  and  many  Western  Repub- 
licans held  the  same  views. 

As  new  States  were  admitted  from  the  West 
the  silver  movement  became  more  formidable. 
At  length  the  silver  men  in  Congress  introduced 
a  bill  to  open  the  Government  mints  to  the  free 
and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  into  full  legal 
tender  money  at  the  existing  legal  ratio  of  1 6  to 
i,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  silver  had  stead- 
ily declined  in  the  markets  of  the  world  until  the 
amount  contained  in  a  silver  dollar  was  worth 
much  less  than  the  gold  in  a  standard  dollar. 
The  bill  did  not  pass,  but  so  strong  were  the 
advocates  of  the  white  metal  that  in  order  to 
conciliate  them  a  compromise  measure  was 
enacted  in  1890  known  as 

The  Sherman  Silver  Purchase  Act.* — This  law 
authorized  the  purchase  by  the  Government  of 
four  million  five  hundred  thousand  ounces  of 
silver  every  month,  to  be  paid  for  in  treasury 
notes  redeemable  in  gold  on  demand.  The  sil- 
ver bullion  itself  was  not  to  be  coined,  but  was 
to  remain  in  the  treasury  and  be  represented  in 

*  Named  after  Senator  John  Sherman,  the  author  of  the 
Anti-Trust  Law,  and  the  most  prominent  member  of  the 
joint  committee  of  Senate  and  House  that  framed  the  meas- 
ure. 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    313 

circulation  by  the  notes,  which  were  made  legal 
tender.  It  was  expected  that  the  law  would 
help  the  mine-owners  by  creating  a  demand 
for  silver,  which  would  consequently  advance  its 
price. 

The  Second  Cleveland  Administration. — Elaine's 
prophecy  that  the  McKinley  Tariff  would  de- 
feat the  party  which  enacted  it  was  completely 
realized  in  1892. 

Again  Harrison  headed  the  Republican  ticket, 
while  the  Democrats  for  the  third  time  nomi- 
nated Cleveland.  The  tariff  was  the  main  issue 
of  the  campaign,  which  ended  with  an  over- 
whelming Democratic  victory.  The  personal 
popularity  of  the  ex-President,  his  well-known 
integrity,  and  the  general  dissatisfaction  caused 
by  the  McKinley  Tariff,  which  had  raised  the 
price  of  the  necessaries  of  life  but  not  the  wages 
of  labor,  were  the  chief  factors  in  determining 
the  result. 

A  significant  feature  of  the  election  was  the 
great  strength  developed  by  the  Populist  move- 
ment in  the  West,  where  in  several  States  the 
Democrats  named  no  electoral  ticket,  but  sup- 
ported Weaver,  the  Populist  candidate,  on  a 
platform  calling  for  the  free  and  unlimited  coin- 
age of  silver. 


3H  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

There  was  a  growing  tendency  on  the  part 
of  the  Western  Democrats  to  cooperate  with  the 
Populists,  due  to  the  conviction  that  Cleveland 
and  the  Eastern  Democrats  were  controlled  by 
the  financial  interests  of  Wall  Street.  Not  a 
few  Silver  Republicans  also  voted  for  Weaver, 
who  received  twenty-two  electoral  votes. 

For  the  first  time  since  1858,  when  James 
Buchanan  was  President,  the  Democratic  Party 
was  in  full  control  of  the  Government,  and  there- 
fore fully  responsible.  It  had  the  Executive 
and  a  large  majority  in  both  branches  of  Con- 
gress. That  the  party  failed  to  make  a  great 
record  for  itself  after  waiting  nearly  forty  years 
for  the  opportunity,  was  due  to  jealousies  and 
disaffections  within  its  own  ranks.  The  East- 
ern and  Western  Democrats  were  at  variance 
with  each  other.  The  President  was  disliked 
by  the  politicians,  who  had  been  almost  unani- 
mously opposed  to  his  nomination,  and  who  had 
yielded  only  because  the  popular  demand  for 
his  candidacy  was  too  great  to  be  safely  re- 
sisted. 

From  the  standpoint  of  Mr.  Cleveland's  pub- 
lic services,  performed  under  difficulties  of  un- 
precedented magnitude  and  gravity,  his  second 
term  deserves  to  be  enrolled  among  the  great  ad- 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    315 

ministrations  in  the  national  history.  Yet 
throughout  its  entire  period,  in  nearly  all  im- 
portant measures,  his  own  party  refused  to  sup- 
port the  President. 

The  Repeal  of  the  Sherman  Act,  1893. — The 
Silver  Purchase  Act  had  disappointed  the  advo- 
cates of  that  measure  by  failing  to  arrest  the 
fall  in  the  price  of  silver,  while  it  had  alarmed 
the  conservative  business  class  by  seeming  to  im- 
peril the  gold  standard. 

During  the  Harrison  administration  Con- 
gress had  spent  a  great  deal  of  money,  so  that 
when  the  Democrats  came  into  power  the  gold 
reserve  in  the  treasury  was  low.  A  spirit  of  un- 
rest and  apprehension  pervaded  the  country. 
As  always  happens  under  such  conditions,  the 
Government  revenues  from  the  tariff  diminished. 
Then  British  India  suspended  the  coinage  of 
silver,  and  that  metal  fell  still  further  in  value. 
Meantime  our  Government  was  purchasing 
four  million  five  hundred  thousand  ounces  of 
silver  every  month  and  paying  for  it  in  gold. 
Great  distrust  prevailed  in  financial  circles  as  to 
the  ability  of  the  Government  to  continue  to 
meet  its  obligations  in  gold,  the  standard  money 
of  civilization.  It  was  feared  that  the  country 
would  be  driven  onto  a  silver  basis.  Business 


3i6  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

concerns  failed,  factories  closed,  and  banks  col- 
lapsed. Clearly  a  remedy  was  needed. 

President  Cleveland,  who  believed  that  these 
distressing  conditions  were  chiefly  due  to  the 
Sherman  Silver  Purchase  Act,  called  a  special 
session  of  Congress  and  urged  its  speedy  repeal. 
Here  arose  a  difficulty,  for  the  Democrats, 
though  easily  commanding  a  majority,  were  di- 
vided over  the  money  question. 

A  great  debate  was  held  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, which  was  remarkable  for  a  speech 
delivered  by  William  J.  Bryan,  a  young  Con- 
gressman from  Nebraska,  who  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  country  by  his  able  and  eloquent 
statement  of  the  argument  for  silver.  But  the 
Gold  Democrats  were  strong  in  the  House,  and 
with  the  aid  of  the  Eastern  Republicans  the  mo- 
tion for  repeal  was  carried  by  a  large  vote  after 
only  three  weeks  of  discussion. 

In  the  Senate  silver  sentiment  was  strong,  and 
the  repeal  of  the  Sherman  Act  met  with  deter- 
mined and  prolonged  resistance.  The  Silver 
Senators  of  all  parties  resorted  to  "  filibuster- 
ing."  Some  tried  to  talk  the  motion  to  death. 
One  of  them,  a  Populist  from  Nebraska,  made 
a  speech  fourteen  hours  long.  Then  the  other 
side  attempted  to  tire  out  the  opposition  by  pre- 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    317 

venting  adjournment,  and  for  three  days  and 
nights  the  Senators  remained  in  their  seats.  At 
last  the  President  threatened  to  withhold  Fed- 
eral patronage  from  the  Senators  who  were  ob- 
structing the  passage  of  the  motion,  and  those 
who  thought  more  of  the  spoils  of  office  than 
they  did  of  their  principles  came  quickly  to 
terms.*  After  three  months  of  useless  delay 
the  Sherman  Act  was  repealed,  but  it  came  too 
late  to  avert  the  panic  that  had  long  been  threat- 
ening. 

The  repeal  of  the  Sherman  Act  was  regarded 
by  the  silver  men  in  all  parties  as  a  victory  for 
the  financiers  of  Wall  Street,  who  it  was  be- 
lieved were  trying  to  reduce  the  volume  of 
money  in  order  to  "  corner  "  or  monopolize  the 
supply. 

This  impression  was  strengthened  by  another 
policy  which  the  President  was  compelled  to 
adopt  in  the  emergency  created  by  the  low  state 
of  the  treasury.  To  save  the  credit  of  the  na- 
tion and  enable  it  to  meet  its  obligations  in  gold, 

*  In  every  State  there  are  many  Federal  offices  whose  in- 
cumbents are  appointed  by  the  President.  It  is  an  unwritten 
law  that  the  senior  Senator  shall  name  the  appointees.  As 
this  privilege  gives  him  a  strong  hold  upon  his  constituents, 
the  President  can  greatly  injure  a  Senator  by  withholding  the 
"patronage,"  as  the  bestowal  of  these  offices  is  called. 


3i8  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Mr.  Cleveland  negotiated  a  gold  loan  from  a 
New  York  banking  syndicate,  which  received  in 
exchange  interest-bearing  Government  bonds. 
For  this  measure  the  President  was  bitterly  de- 
nounced by  many  in  his  own  party,  who  accepted 
it  as  additional  evidence  of  the  subserviency  of 
the  Eastern  Democracy  to  Wall  Street. 

The  repeal  of  the  Sherman  Act  and  the  bond 
issue  went  far  toward  solidifying  the  alliance 
already  formed  between  the  Silver  Democrats 
and  the  Populists. 

The  Wilson  Tariff. — Another  vital  issue  on 
which  the  President  and  his  party  failed  to 
agree  was  the  tariff. 

The  Democrats  had  pledged  themselves  in 
1892  to  repeal  the  McKinley  Tariff  and  substi- 
tute lower  duties.  A  bill  was  introduced  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  by  William  L.  Wil- 
son, Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and 
Means,  proposing  to  reduce  the  duties  on  many 
articles,  which  was  carried  by  a  large  majority. 
The  bill  was  then  referred  to  the  Senate  where 
some  of  the  Democratic  members,  contrary  to 
their  party  creed  and  their  election  promises, 
insisted  upon  so  much  protection  that  when  the 
measure  finally  passed  both  Houses  the  Presi- 
dent refused  to  sign  it.  But  as  he  believed  it 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    319 

to  be  an  improvement  on  the  McKinley  Tariff, 
he  could  not  veto  it,  and  so  allowed  it  to  become 
a  law  without  his  signature. 

It  was  publicly  charged,  and  generally  be- 
lieved, that  corrupt  influences  had  persuaded 
certain  Democratic  Senators  to  vote  for  the  re- 
tention of  extortionate  duties. 

The  Wilson  Tariff  law  carried  with  it  a  pro- 
vision for  raising  additional  revenue  by  means 
of  an  income  tax.  This,  however,  was  declared 
unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court.  Opin- 
ion was  divided,  and  the  decision  reversed  all 
precedents. 

The  failure  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  sustain 
the  income  tax  aggravated  the  bitterness  of 
those  who  were  already  convinced  that  the  Gov- 
ernment was  hand  in  glove  with  the  million- 
aires. 

The  Columbian  Exposition  which  was  held  in 
celebration  of  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  discovery  of  America,  offers  a  cheerful  con- 
trast to  these  troublous  experiences.  In  fitting 
recognition  of  the  world-wide  results  which  had 
flowed  from  that  remote  event,  it  was  deter- 
mined to  hold  in  the  city  of  Chicago  an  inter- 
national exposition  similar  to  the  Centennial  of 
1876,  but  on  a  larger  scale,  showing  the  prog- 


320  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

ress  that  the  human  race  had  made  in  four  hun- 
dred years  along  all  lines  of  effort. 

The  Exposition  lasted  from  May  to  Novem- 
ber, 1893,  preparations  having  been  begun  too 
late  to  hold  it  in  1892,  the  correct  year.  Mag- 
nificent buildings  were  erected  at  great  cost, 
wherein  were  displayed  the  treasures  of  art  and 
the  triumphs  of  science  and  industry.  The 
world  had  made  marvellous  strides  in  civiliza- 
tion since  Columbus  unfurled  the  banner  of 
Spain  on  San  Salvador  in  1492,  and  America 
had  led  the  way  in  much  of  it. 

The  Great  Pullman  Strike,  1894.— The  hard 
times  through  which  the  whole  country  was 
passing  produced  great  discontent  in  the  labor 
world.  Many  men  and  women  were  thrown  out 
of  employment  or  had  their  wages  reduced. 

The  Pullman  Company,  manufacturers  of 
cars,  whose  shops  were  located  near  Chicago, 
cut  down  the  wages  of  their  workmen,  but  did 
not  reduce  the  salaries  of  officers  or  the  rents 
of  the  Company's  houses  in  which  their  em- 
ployees lived.  The  men  then  struck.  When 
the  Company  were  asked  to  arbitrate  the  matter 
they  refused,  saying  they  were  doing  the  best 
they  could  and  had  nothing  to  arbitrate. 

The  American  Railway  Union,  which  many 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    321 

of  the  Pullman  strikers  had  joined,  thereupon 
ordered  all  members  of  the  Union  to  handle  no 
cars  made  by  the  Pullman  Company.  As  Pull- 
man cars  were  almost  universally  used,  nearly 
every  railroad  west  of  Ohio  was  paralyzed  by 
the  order.  Interstate  commerce,  passenger  traf- 
fic, and  the  United  States  mails  were  seriously 
interrupted. 

A  Federal  court  issued  an  injunction  against 
the  American  Railway  Union,  ordering  it  to  re- 
frain from  further  attempts  to  induce  employees 
to  strike.  This  enraged  the  strikers,  who  up  to 
this  point  had  not  been  guilty  of  violence.  They 
now  began  to  destroy  cars  and  tear  up  tracks. 
The  strike  spread  all  through  the  West  and 
South-west,  and  many  persons  lost  their  lives. 
Much  of  the  violence  was  committed  by  an- 
archists, who  sympathized  with  the  strikers  but 
were  not  members  of  the  American  Railway 
Union.  The  President  issued  a  proclamation 
against  rioting. 

Some  of  the  labor  leaders,  among  them  Eu- 
gene V.  Debs,  the  president  of  the  Union,  were 
arrested  and  put  in  jail  for  disobeying  the  in- 
junction of  the  court,  on  the  technical  charge  of 
contempt.  This  act  was  severely  condemned  by 
many  prominent  men  who  had  no  sympathy  for 


322  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Debs  or  his  associates  or  the  cause  they  repre- 
sented, but  who  believed  that  it  was  contrary 
to  the  spirit  of  our  laws  and  institutions  and 
dangerous  to  liberty  to  permit  courts  to  send 
men  to  jail  without  trial.  The  incident  was 
destined  to  play  a  part  in  the  next  presidential 
campaign. 

Whether  right  or  wrong,  the  imprisonment 
of  the  leaders  broke  the  backbone  of  the  strike. 
The  loss  of  life  and  property  was  immense,  and 
would  have  been  vastly  greater  had  it  not 
been  for  the  energetic  measures  of  President 
Cleveland.  The  Governor  of  Illinois,  who  was 
in  sympathy  with  the  strikers,  refused  to  call 
out  the  National  Guard  in  spite  of  the  hourly 
destruction  of  life  and  property  in  Chicago. 
Mr.  Cleveland  then  sent  Federal  troops  to  the 
scene  of  the  rioting,  and  order  was  quickly  re- 
stored. 

The  President  was  widely  criticised  for  his 
action  on  the  ground  that  he  had  exceeded  his 
authority.  The  Constitution  does  not  specifi- 
cally authorize  the  Executive  to  send  Federal 
soldiers  into  a  State  for  such  a  purpose  unless 
the  State  Government  requests  it.  But  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  do  empower  him  to  protect 
the  United  States  mails  and  interstate  commerce 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    323 

against  conspiracies.  These  interests  were  clear- 
ly imperilled,  and  it  was  on  this  ground  that 
Mr.  Cleveland  justified  his  course.  This  inci- 
dent also  was  destined  to  assist  in  shaping  the 
issues  of  the  next  campaign. 

Cleveland  Champions  the  Monroe  Doctrine. — 
For  more  than  half  a  century  there  had  been 
disagreement  between  Great  Britain  and  Venez- 
uela over  the  boundary  separating  Venezuela 
from  British  Guiana.  The  South  American 
country  had  many  times  offered  to  submit  the 
dispute  to  arbitration,  but  Great  Britain  had  al- 
ways declined.  President  Cleveland  directed 
the  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Richard  Olney,  to 
inform  Great  Britain  that  the  United  States,  in 
accordance  with  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  must  in- 
sist on  the  arbitration  of  the  British- Venezuelan 
dispute.  Lord  Salisbury,  the  British  Prime- 
minister,  refused,  declaring  that  he  did  not  ac- 
cept the  Monroe  Doctrine.  Then  the  Presi- 
dent, believing  that  this  time-honored  policy 
was  in  peril,  sent  a  message  to  Congress  in 
December,  1895,  recommending  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Commission  to  determine  the  exact 
boundary,  and  declaring  that  in  case  the  dis- 
puted territory  should  be  found  to  belong  right- 
fully to  Venezuela  it  would  become  "  the  duty 


324  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  the  United  States  to  resist  by  every  means  in 
its  power  "  the  aggressions  of  Great  Britain. 

The  message  threatened  war  and  aroused  the 
national  patriotism.  Congress  forgot  party  and 
factional  differences  and  came  heartily  to  the 
support  of  the  President.  Lord  Salisbury  then 
receded  from  his  position  and  agreed  to  arbi- 
trate. 

The  Commission  decided  in  favor  of  the 
British  contention,  but  the  incident  impressed 
Europe  with  the  fact  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
was  a  vital  and  integral  part  of  the  policy  of 
the  United  States,  and  could  not  be  safely  trifled 
with. 

Free  Silver  and  the  Battle  of  1896. — The  silver 
movement,  which  had  been  steadily  gathering 
momentum,  broke  over  the  country  in  a  perfect 
tidal  wave  in  1896. 

The  Republican  Party  contained  a  strong  and 
numerous  silver  faction,  but  its  general  leaning 
was  toward  the  gold  standard.  The  convention 
met  at  St.  Louis  in  June,  and  adopted  a  com- 
promise platform  favoring  the  retention  of  the 
single  gold  standard  until  the  double  standard 
could  be  restored  by  the  joint  action  of  the  other 
leading  nations,  which  it  pledged  itself  to  bring 
about.  It  nominated  for  President,  William 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    325 

McKinley,  of  Ohio,  and  for  Vice-president, 
Garret  A.  Hobart,  of  New  Jersey.  Both  can- 
didates had  risen  from  poverty  in  early  life  by 
industry  and  force  of  character.  McKinley  had 
been  fourteen  years  a  member  of  Congress, 
twice  Governor  of  Ohio,  and  had  shown  great 
strength  as  a  party  leader. 

The  Democrats  met  in  Chicago  a  few  weeks 
later.  For  a  long  time  the  Democratic  Party 
had  been  drifting  in  the  direction  already  taken 
by  the  Populists.  The  convention  was  com- 
pletely dominated  by  the  Western  wing,  but 
there  was  no  leadership.  While  the  convention 
was  trying  to  decide  on  a  candidate,  William  J. 
Bryan  addressed  the  delegates  in  an  impas- 
sioned speech  of  great  eloquence,  giving  ex- 
pression in  thrilling  language  to  ideals  and  sen- 
timents which  the  majority  in  the  hall  felt,  but 
which  Bryan  alone  seemed  to  have  the  power 
to  utter.  The  effect  of  the  speech  was  to  stam- 
pede the  convention  for  the  orator,  who  was 
nominated  for  the  presidency  the  next  day.  Mr. 
Bryan  was  barely  thirty-six  years  old,  just  one 
year  above  the  Constitutional  age  of  eligibility. 
Arthur  Sewall,  of  Maine,  received  the  nomina- 
tion for  Vice-president. 

The  Democratic  platform  demanded  the  free 


326  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  at  the  existing 
legal  ratio  of  16  to  i  "  without  waiting  for  the 
aid  or  consent  of  any  other  nation."  Its  labor 
plank  denounced  the  sending  of  Federal  troops 
to  Chicago  during  the  Pullman  strike,  and  the 
abuse  of  injunctions  by  the  courts,  as  instanced 
in  the  committal  of  Debs  and  his  associates  to 
jail  without  trial.  The  platform  also  demanded 
an  income  tax  as  the  best  means  to  effect  a  just 
distribution  of  the  burden  of  supporting  the 
Government. 

The  Populist  Party,  finding  its  aims  and  sym- 
pathies so  cordially  reflected  by  the  Democratic 
Party,  also  nominated  Bryan  with  Thomas  E. 
Watson,  of  Georgia,  for  his  running  mate.  The 
Populist  demands  coincided  with  those  of  the 
Democrats,  but  included  in  addition  Government 
ownership  of  railroads  and  telegraphs  and  the 
popular  election  of  President,  Vice-president, 
and  United  States  Senators. 

Many  Western  Republicans  who  believed  in 
free  silver  turned  against  their  party  and  in- 
dorsed Bryan,  while  the  Eastern  Democrats 
very  generally  supported  McKinley. 

A  very  small  minority  of  the  Democratic 
Party  met  in  Indianapolis  and  named  an  Inde- 
pendent ticket  on  a  platform  declaring  unequivo- 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    327 

cally  for  the  gold  standard.  The  Gold  Demo- 
crats were  indorsed  by  President  Cleveland,  but 
polled  only  a  few  thousand  votes. 

The  Argument. — Had  it  not  been  for  the  hard 
times  of  1893  an<3  1894  the  free  silver  idea 
would  probably  not  have  attained  such  wide 
popularity.  It  was  offered  as  a  sure  remedy 
for  existing  poverty  and  business  distress. 

The  Democrats  claimed  that  ever  since  the 
demonetization  of  silver  by  the  leading  nations 
there  had  not  been  sufficient  standard  money — 
that  is,  gold — to  keep  pace  with  the  growth  of 
business;  that  the  supply  of  gold  had  remained 
about  the  same  while  the  demand  for  it  had  con- 
stantly increased,  which  meant  that  the  yellow 
metal  was  constantly  appreciating  in  value. 
Consequently  a  man  who  had  borrowed  $1,000 
twenty  years  ago  would  have  to  pay  it  back  to- 
day in  money  worth  very  much  more  than  when 
the  debt  was  contracted.  This  was  an  obvious 
injustice  to  the  debtor  class.  Restore  silver  as 
standard  money  along  with  gold,  said  they,  and 
gold  will  drop  in  value  because  it  will  be  in  less 
demand,  while  silver  will  rise.  When  one  metal 
gets  too  dear  we  will  use  the  other,  and  thus 
maintain  the  parity. 

The  Republicans  said  in  effect:  We  also  be- 


328  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

lieve  in  the  double  standard,  but  we  do  not  think 
it  possible  for  the  United  States  alone  to  restore 
bimetallism,  for  if  we  open  our  mints  to  the 
free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver,  all  the  sil- 
ver of  the  world  will  flow  hither.  The  experi- 
ence of  the  whole  world  proves  that  cheap 
money  always  drives  good  money  out  of  circu- 
lation. We  shall  be  driven  onto  a  silver  basis 
like  the  countries  of  South  America  and  Asia. 
A  silver  dollar  is  worth  in  the  market  only  fifty 
cents.  If  we  pay  our  debts  in  fifty-cent  dollars 
we  shall  be  dishonest  to  our  creditors.  Wait 
until  we  can  get  the  consent  of  Europe,  and 
then  we  will  restore  the  double  standard. 

To  this  the  Democrats  answered :  The  United 
States  produces  more  silver  than  any  other  coun- 
try. Europe  must  buy  our  silver,  because  no- 
where else  can  she  get  all  that  she  needs  for 
currency  and  for  use  in  the  arts.  We  admit 
that  the  market  value  of  a  silver  dollar  is  only 
fifty  cents.  But  if  we  offer  to  stamp  all  the 
fifty-cent  silver  in  the  world  with  a  dollar  mark 
we  shall  create  such  a  demand  for  silver  that 
other  nations  will  be  compelled  to  do  the  same 
thing,  and  a  dollar  will  then  be  worth  as  much 
in  the  market  as  it  is  at  the  mints. 

Neither   side    intended   to   be    dishonest   to 


THE  SILVER  QUESTION  IN  POLITICS    329 

debtor  or  creditor.  It  was  simply  a  difference 
of  conviction  as  to  the  most  effective  method 
of  establishing  a  monetary  system  that  both 
parties  seemed  to  think  desirable.  The  Demo- 
crats said:  We  can  do  it  ourselves.  The  Re- 
publicans said:  We  must  have  the  consent  of 
Europe. 

The  Triumph  of  the  Gold  Standard.— After  the 
most  exciting  political  battle  since  1860  the 
Democratic  Party  was  defeated  and  the  Repub- 
licans once  more  returned  to  power. 

The  campaign  called  out  the  largest  vote  in 
the  history  of  the  country  up  to  that  time.  Mc- 
Kinley  had  a  popular  majority  of  over  half  a 
million,  but  the  vote  for  Bryan  was  larger  than 
Cleveland's  vote  in  1892. 

The  Administration  of  William  McKinley. — One 
of  the  first  acts  of  the  McKinley  administration 
was  to  conciliate  the  defeated  silver  forces  by 
sending  three  commissioners  abroad  to  inquire 
into  the  possibility  of  restoring  the  double  stand- 
ard by  international  consent,  but  the  commis- 
sioners found  little  sentiment  favorable  to  such 
a  step.  The  gold  dollar  was  then  fixed  by  law 
as  the  standard  of  value  for  the  United  States, 
thus  supplementing  the  earlier  legislation  of 

1873- 


330  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  gold  discoveries  in  the  Klondike  and  else- 
where in  recent  years  have  eliminated  the  silver 
issue  from  politics,  and  its  revival  is  improbable. 

The  Dingley  Tariff. — President  McKinley  sum- 
moned an  extra  session  of  Congress  soon  after 
his  inauguration  to  provide  means  for  increas- 
ing the  public  revenue.  The  Dingley  Tariff 
was  passed  in  July,  1897,  superseding  the  Wil- 
son Act.  It  raised  the  average  of  duties  even 
above  the  McKinley  Tariff  of  1890,  and  is  still 
in  force  (1907). 

European  nations  began  to  retaliate  with  simi- 
lar legislation  against  the  United  States,  impos- 
ing prohibitive  duties  upon  American  goods 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

WAR  AND  EXPANSION 

AT  the  period  with  which  this  history 
opened  Spain  was  the  dominant  power 
of  the  world.  We  have  seen  how  in 
colonial  days  Spanish  dominion  gave  place  to 
French  and  English  control.  Toward  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century  the  only  territory 
owned  by  Spain  in  the  Western  Hemisphere 
were  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  a  few  other  islands 
in  the  West  Indies.  These  possessions  were 
still  ruled  in  the  Spanish  fashion  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  plundered  by  greedy  and  corrupt  offi- 
cials, their  inhabitants  having  no  acquaintance 
with  self-government. 

The  Revolt  of  Cuba. — The  people  of  Cuba  had 
several  times  revolted  against  the  tyranny  of 
their  masters,  but  had  always  been  pacified  by 
promises  of  better  government,  which  were  in- 
variably broken.  The  last  rebellion  began  in 
1895,  and  was  carried  on  in  a  spirit  of  wonder- 
ful heroism. 

331 


332  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Spanish  military  methods  were  cruel.  The 
noncombatant  population  of  the  island  was 
herded  in  camps  and  towns  and  subjected  to 
the  slow  torture  of  starvation.  Both  Cleveland 
and  McKinley,  during  their  tenures  of  presiden- 
tial office,  had  issued  warnings  that  this  inhuman 
warfare  must  cease,  but  Spain  gave  no  heed. 

The  Destruction  of  the  Maine.— There  were 
many  American  citizens  living  in  Havana,  and 
the  United  States  had  large  commercial  and 
shipping  interests  in  the  island.  In  February, 
1898,  President  McKinley  ordered  the  battle- 
ship Maine  to  Cuban  waters  to  protect  Ameri- 
can interests  which  were  being  constantly  vio- 
lated by  the  Spanish.  On  the  night  of  February 
1 5th,  while  the  crew  were  asleep,  the  Maine 
was  blown  up  in  Havana  harbor.  Two  hundred 
and  sixty-six  men  lost  their  lives.  A  Spanish 
commission,  appointed  to  ascertain  the  cause  of 
the  catastrophe,  reported  that  the  explosion  was 
the  result  of  defective  internal  conditions,  but 
the  report  of  a  board  of  United  States  naval 
officers  indicated  that  the  Maine  had  been  de- 
stroyed by  Spanish  treachery. 

War  with  Spain. — The  destruction  of  the 
Maine  infuriated  the  American  people,  who 
were  convinced  that  it  was  the  deliberate  act 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  333 

of  Spaniards,  and  was  answered  by  a  general 
demand  for  war,  which  was  officially  declared 
on  April  25,  1898. 

The  official  declaration  explicitly  stated  that 
the  object  of  the  United  States  in  resorting  to 
arms  was  to  release  the  struggling  patriots  of 
Cuba  from  the  curse  of  Spanish  rule  and  to 
give  them  independence.  The  war  was  destined 
to  be  brief  but  exceedingly  important  in  its 
results. 

As  the  regular  army  numbered  only  about 
twenty-six  thousand  men,  the  President  issued 
a  call  for  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand 
volunteers.  The  popular  response  was  over- 
whelming. Sectional,  partisan,  and  social  dis- 
tinctions melted  away  in  the  unanimity  of  patri- 
otic sentiment.  In  the  regular  army  were 
famous  Confederate  generals  fighting  side  by 
side  with  their  former  opponents  of  the  Civil 
War. 

The  Victory  of  Manila  Bay. — Hostilities  opened 
in  the  Far  East.  Commodore  Dewey,  who  com- 
manded the  American  naval  forces  in  Asiatic 
waters,  was  ordered  to  attack  the  Spanish  fleet 
which  was  stationed  in  Manila  Bay,  Philippine 
Islands.  On  May  ist,  after  a  terrific  battle  last- 
ing half  a  day,  the  Spanish  ships  were  utterly 


334  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

destroyed  and  hundreds  of  sailors  killed,  though 
not  an  American  life  was  lost. 

A  few  months  later  the  city  of  Manila  was 
taken  by  the  combined  attack  of  Dewey  and  a 
land  force  under  General  Wesley  Merritt,  as- 
sisted by  a  band  of  Filipinos  commanded  by 
Aguinaldo,  a  native  leader. 

Congress  passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  Dewey 
and  his  men,  and  made  the  Commodore  an 
Admiral. 

San  Juan  and  Santiago. — An  American  army 
of  seventeen  thousand  men  was  landed  on  the 
coast  of  Cuba  and  took  up  its  march  to  the  city 
of  Santiago.  In  an  engagement  with  the  Span- 
iards on  July  2d  the  Americans  were  victorious. 
The  feature  of  the  day  was  the  brilliant  charge 
of  the  "  Rough  Riders,"  a  volunteer  regiment  of 
cavalry  typical  of  our  cosmopolitan  citizenship, 
made  up  of  rich  men  and  poor  men,  society  lead- 
ers, college  graduates,  and  cowboys  from  the 
Western  plains. 

While  the  army  was  approaching  Santiago 
by  land  a  naval  force  under  Admirals  Sampson 
and  Schley  was  waiting  at  the  mouth  of  the 
harbor  for  the  Spanish  fleet  which  was  stationed 
within  to  emerge.  On  July  3d  the  Spaniards 
made  a  brave  though  futile  dash  for  liberty. 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  335 

Instantly  the  American  ships  opened  fire.  In 
the  course  of  a  few  hours  every  Spanish  vessel 
was  sunk  or  captured  and  hundreds  of  their 
crews  slain.  Only  one  American  was  killed  and 
one  wounded.  Two  weeks  after  this  event  San- 
tiago surrendered,  and  the  whole  island  passed 
under  the  military  control  of  the  United  States. 

A  few  weeks  later  Porto  Rico  was  taken  by 
General  Miles's  army. 

The  End  of  the  War. — The  Spanish  Govern- 
ment, being  unable  to  sustain  the  war  any 
longer,  signified  its  desire  to  cease  hostilities. 
A  treaty  of  peace  negotiated  between  the  two 
belligerent  nations  at  Paris  in  the  fall  was 
ratified  by  the  United  States  Senate  February 
6,  1899,  and  signed  by  the  Queen  Regent  of 
Spain  the  following  month. 

Under  the  conditions  of  this  treaty  Spain  re- 
linquished her  sovereignty  over  Cuba,  ceded  her 
other  islands  in  the  West  Indies,  including  Porto 
Rico,  to  the  United  States,  and  also  ceded  to 
the  United  States  the  entire  Philippine  group, 
in  return  for  which  she  received  a  gratuity  of 
$20,000,000. 

The  Philippine  Question  and  the  Presidential 
Election  of  1900. — The  acquisition  of  the  Philip- 
pine Islands  by  the  United  States  gave  rise  to  a 


336  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

long  and  heated  discussion  in  this  country. 
They  had  been  captured  as  a  military  measure, 
and  when  the  war  ended  were  still  in  our  pos- 
session. 

There  were  apparently  but  three  ways  for  the 
peace  commissioners  to  dispose  of  the  Philip- 
pines :  to  restore  them  to  Spain  and  continue  the 
misrule  of  centuries;  to  give  them  independence 
and  set  them  adrift;  or  cede  them  to  the  United 
States,  to  which  they  belonged  by  right  of  con- 
quest. 

The  first  course  would  have  been  wrong,  the 
second  impossible.  The  Filipinos  were  utterly 
unfit  for  self-government  in  their  existing  con- 
dition, and  would  probably  have  fallen  prey  to 
some  stronger  power  had  they  been  given  inde- 
pendence. Since  it  seemed  to  be  the  only  prac- 
ticable solution  of  the  question,  the  United  States 
determined  to  keep  the  Philippines,  and  to  do 
what  it  could  do  to  redeem  their  people  from  ig- 
norance, superstition,  and  savagery.  Being  un- 
der no  obligation  to  give  Spain  one  cent  for  the 
islands — to  which  the  United  States  was  en- 
titled by  right  of  conquest — this  nation  (as 
stated  above)  nevertheless  offered  Spain  $20,- 
000,000  as  an  equivalent. 

A  large  proportion  of  Filipinos,  under  the 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  337 

leadership  of  Aguinaldo,  rose  against  the  Ameri- 
cans and  proclaimed  an  independent  Philippine 
republic.  For  two  years  a  guerrilla  warfare  was 
carried  on  between  the  Filipino  insurgents  and 
the  American  troops. 

There  were  many  persons  in  the  United  States 
who  sympathized  with  Aguinaldo  and  his  fol- 
lowers, believing  that  our  Government  could 
not,  without  subverting  republican  ideals  and  in- 
stitutions, force  its  sovereignty  upon  an  unwill- 
ing alien  people.  The  Democratic  Party  held 
this  view. 

Before  the  Philippine  revolt  had  been  sup- 
pressed the  presidential  campaign  of  1900 
was  at  hand.  The  Democrats  renominated 
Bryan  and  reiterated  their  principles  of  1896. 
Their  platform  contained  an  additional  plank 
in  favor  of  the  immediate  independence  of 
the  Philippines  under  an  American  protec- 
torate, and  denouncing  imperialism,  which  they 
declared  to  be  the  main  issue  of  the  campaign. 
The  knowledge  that  the  Democratic  Party  had 
advocated  their  cause  encouraged  the  Filipinos 
to  resist  the  United  States  with  renewed  vigor. 

The  Populists  also  renominated  Bryan,  but 
at  the  election  polled  a  smaller  vote  than  in 
1896.  The  importance  of  the  Populist  Party 


338  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

as  a  separate  political  organization  has  steadily 
waned,  the  greater  part  of  its  membership  hav- 
ing been  absorbed  by  the  radical  and  predomi- 
nant wing  of  the  Democratic  Party,  whose  aim 
is  to  extend  the  general  activities  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  the  direction  urged  by  the  Populists. 

The  Republicans  again  placed  McKinley  at 
the  head  of  their  ticket,  naming  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  Governor  of  New  York,  for  Vice- 
president.  They  took  the  ground  that  the 
United  States  was  in  duty  bound  as  a  humane 
and  progressive  nation  to  civilize  the  benighted 
people  who  by  the  fortune  of  war  had  been 
brought  under  our  flag;  that  a  protectorate 
would  fail  to  answer  the  purpose;  that  the  isl- 
ands must  be  pacified  by  military  force  before 
anything  could  be  accomplished;  that  the  Fili- 
pinos lacked  the  enlightened  instincts  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  races,  and  would  relapse  into  barbarism 
if  allowed  at  this  stage  to  go  their  own  way. 

The  verdict  of  the  people  on  this  and  on  the 
former  issues  of  1896  was  a  majority  for  Mc- 
Kinley and  Roosevelt  larger  than  the  immense 
Republican  majority  four  years  before. 

What  Has  Been  Accomplished  in  our  Island 
Possessions. — In  March,  1901,  Aguinaldo  was 
captured,  and  by  the  close  of  that  year  the 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  339 

Philippine  insurrection  was  practically  at  an 
end. 

Military  authority  has  been  replaced  by  civil 
government,  in  which  the  Filipinos  have  been 
given  a  degree  of  representation;  schools  have 
been  instituted  with  American  teachers,  and  the 
work  of  civilization  is  advancing.  The  islands 
have  not,  however,  been  granted  those  advan- 
tages of  an  open  market  for  their  products  to 
which,  as  a  part  of  our  domain,  they  are  in  all 
justice  entitled. 

In  Porto  Rico  the  conditions  were  different 
from  the  start,  the  people  being  far  more  civil- 
ized and  willing  to  be  annexed  to  the  United 
States.  The  Porto  Ricans  have  a  considerable 
share  in  civil  government.  Popular  education  has 
made  great  headway,  and  the  domestic  products 
and  commerce  of  the  island  are  being  rapidly 
developed. 

Neither  Porto  Rico  nor  the  Philippines  are 
a  part  of  the  Union  as  a  State  or  territory. 
They  are  dependencies  of  the  United  States, 
subject  to  the  laws  which  Congress  may  make 
for  their  government. 

Cuba. — There  were  many  things  to  be  done 
in  Cuba  before  the  island  could  be  turned  over 
to  its  people.  With  the  commencement  of  1899 


340  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  United  States  Government  assumed  entire 
charge  of  Cuban  affairs.  The  legal  and  judicial 
systems  and  methods  of  taxation  were  reformed, 
the  sanitary  conditions  of  the  cities  improved, 
public  schools  introduced,  and  the  people  pre- 
pared for  self-government. 

In  May,  1902,  the  American  occupation 
came  to  an  end  and  the  Cuban  people  entered 
upon  their  career  as  a  republican  member  of 
the  family  of  nations. 

The  United  States  had  sacrificed  life  and 
lavished  treasure  in  the  liberation  of  Cuba.  It 
seemed  not  unreasonable,  therefore,  to  demand 
in  return  that  American  interests  should  not  be 
ignored  or  jeopardized  by  the  nation  which 
owed  its  existence  to  the  intervention  of  the 
United  States.  Accordingly,  Cuba  promised  to 
respect  the  Monroe  Doctrine  by  never  allowing 
any  foreign  power  to  acquire  control  of  any  part 
of  Cuban  territory,  and  further  agreed  never 
to  incur  debts  beyond  its  power  to  pay.  Several 
naval  stations  were  granted  in  perpetuity  to  the 
United  States.  These  concessions  were  em- 
bodied in  the  Cuban  constitution. 

The  probabilities  for  a  successful  and  perma- 
nent Cuban  republic,  as  indicated  by  the  events 
of  the  last  four  years,  do  not  conduce  to  an  opti- 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  341 

mistic  view  of  the  future.  The  political  history 
of  independent  Cuba  is  not  essentially  different 
from  that  of  the  common  run  of  Latin-Ameri- 
can republics.  In  1906  it  became  necessary  for 
the  United  States  to  intervene  for  the  protection 
of  its  citizens  and  the  preservation  of  their  in- 
terests. A  state  of  anarchy  prevailed  in  the 
island,  precipitated  by  the  disaffection  of  a 
strong  revolutionary  element  and  the  inefficiency 
of  the  Cuban  administration  to  enforce  author- 
ity. The  intervention  was  in  strict  accord  with 
legality,  and  was  welcomed  by  government  and 
rebels  alike.  With  their  consent,  and  by  author- 
ity of  the  United  States,  a  provisional  govern- 
ment was  established  to  unravel  the  civil  tangle. 
Results  of  the  War  with  Spain. — Only  a  few 
months  elapsed  between  the  declaration  of  hos- 
tilities and  the  signing  of  the  peace  treaty. 
There  were  but  two  great  naval  engagements, 
and  no  land  battle  that  would  at  all  compare 
in  magnitude  with  the  battles  of  the  Civil  War. 
And  yet  measured  by  its  consequences  the  Span- 
ish War  was  one  of  the  most  important  con- 
tests of  modern  times.  It  not  only  destroyed 
the  last  remnant  of  Spanish  sovereignty  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere,  but  it  marked  the  definite 
abandonment  by  the  United  States  of  its  former 


342  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

policy  of  isolation  from  the  affairs  of  the  out- 
side world  and  its  entrance  upon  the  broad 
stage  of  international  life  in  the  permanent 
character  of  a  world  power.  American  sov- 
ereignty over  the  Philippine  and  Hawaiian  Isl- 
ands in  the  Pacific,  together  with  a  steadily  in- 
creasing Oriental  trade,  have  given  this  nation 
so  many  points  of  contact  with  other  first-class 
powers  having  commercial  interests  in  the  Far 
East,  that  it  could  not  any  longer  remain  a 
"hermit"  nation  even  if  it  were  so  disposed.* 
This  development  has  necessitated  a  larger 
army  and  navy,  but  that  does  not  necessarily 
signify  that  Americans  are  becoming  more  bel- 
ligerent. On  the  contrary,  the  United  States  has 
shown  a  willingness  beyond  any  other  country  to 
arbitrate  differences  with  other  nations,  excepting 
issues  involving  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  which  it 
has  officially  proclaimed  it  will  never  arbitrate. 
It  gave  hearty  cooperation  to  the  establishment 

*  The  Hawaiian  Islands  are  a  small  group  situated  about 
two  thousand  miles  from  San  Francisco  containing  a  mixed 
population.  In  1893  the  native  monarchy  was  overthrown 
and  a  provisional  government  established  under  the  leader- 
ship of  American  residents.  In  1898  the  islands  were  an- 
nexed to  the  United  States  by  a  joint  resolution  of  Congress 
and  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  a  majority  of  the 
Hawaiian  people.  Two  years  later  Hawaii  was  made  a 
territory.  The  islands  are  important  chiefly  as  a  naval  station. 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  343 

of  the  international  court  known  as  The  Hague 
Tribunal  (1899),  an^  was  the  first  to  submit 
a  dispute  to  the  decision  of  that  body. 

The  United  States  and  the  "Open  Door"  in 
China. — The  reality  of  American  influence  in 
the  Far  East  received  striking  demonstration  in 
the  events  following  the  Boxer  uprising. 

Certain  European  powers  had  long  been  try- 
ing to  get  control  of  China.  In  1900  the  Box- 
ers, a  Chinese  secret  society,  started  a  crusade 
against  foreigners,  and  for  five  weeks  the  for- 
eign legations  at  Peking  were  besieged.  The 
German  minister  and  many  other  persons  were 
killed.  The  legations  were  saved  by  the  timely 
arrival  of  a  relief  expedition  made  up  of  British, 
French,  German,  Japanese,  Russian,  and  Ameri- 
can troops. 

Most  of  the  European  powers  proposed  to 
punish  China  by  taking  territory  away  from  her 
and  dividing  it  among  themselves.  This  inten- 
tion was  resisted  by  the  United  States  through 
John  Hay,  the  able  Secretary  of  State,  who  suc- 
ceeded in  gaining  general  assent  to  the  "  Open 
Door  "  policy — that  is,  that  no  nation  appro- 
priate any  part  of  China  exclusively  for  itself, 
but  that  China  be  open  to  the  commerce  of  the 
world. 


344  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Assassination  of  McKinley. — The  second 
administration  of  William  McKinley  opened 
with  every  indication  of  prosperity  for  the  coun- 
try over  which  he  had  twice  been  elected  to  pre- 
side. In  1901  a  Pan-American  Exposition  was 
held  at  Buffalo.  The  President  attended  and 
delivered  a  speech  full  of  wise  counsel  and  noble 
sentiment.  At  its  conclusion  he  was  approached 
by  an  anarchist  who  carried  a  revolver  concealed 
in  a  handkerchief  wrapped  about  his  hand,  and 
in  unspeakable  treachery  shot  the  President  as 
the  latter  extended  his  hand  in  friendly  greet- 
ing. McKinley  lingered  a  few  days,  but  died 
on  September  I4th. 

As  President,  and  throughout  his  long  pub- 
lic career,  Mr.  McKinley  had  shown  himself 
to  be  not  only  a  wise  and  upright  statesman 
but  a  gentleman  of  exalted  type,  and  his  death 
was  the  occasion  of  unfeigned  and  universal 
grief. 

The  Presidency  of  Theodore  Roosevelt. — Mc- 
Kinley's  successor  had  been  in  public  life  ever 
since  his  graduation  from  Harvard  College  in 
1880,  and  was  favorably  known  as  author,  civil 
service  reformer,  and  statesman.  He  had  at- 
tracted attention  as  Police  Commissioner  of 
New  York  City  by  his  rigorous  enforcement  of 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  345 

the  laws.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  with 
Spain  he  was  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
but  resigned  to  take  the  field,  where  he  won 
popular  renown  as  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the 
Rough  Riders.  After  the  war  he  was  elected 
Governor  of  New  York,  and  subsequently  Vice- 
president  of  the  United  States.  Roosevelt  pos- 
sessed courage,  independence,  firmness,  and  hon- 
esty. On  account  of  these  qualities  his  strength 
lay  with  the  people  rather  than  with  the  poli- 
ticians. 

The  Coal  Strike,  1902. — The  industrial  war- 
fare between  capital  and  labor  broke  out  with 
renewed  fury  in  the  spring  of  1902,  when  the 
anthracite  coal-miners  of  Pennsylvania  struck 
after  their  demands  for  higher  wages,  shorter 
hours,  and  the  recognition  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers'  Union  had  been  refused  by  the  oper- 
ators. In  the  interests  of  the  general  public 
who  were  threatened  with  a  coal  famine  by  the 
strike,  President  Roosevelt  appealed  to  the 
miners  and  operators  to  submit  their  dispute 
to  arbitration.  Both  sides  consenting,  a  com- 
mission was  appointed  which  succeeded  in  set- 
tling the  strike  by  a  three  years'  agreement  be- 
tween operators  and  miners. 

One  result  of  the  coal  strike  was  the  creation 


346  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  a  new  Cabinet  position,  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Labor. 

Roosevelt  and  the  Trusts. — The  great  aggre- 
gations of  capital  had  been  steadily  growing 
stronger,  while  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law, 
which  had  been  passed  in  1890  for  their  regula- 
tion, had  never  been  enforced.  Realizing  the 
peril  to  the  public  that  lay  in  the  misuse  of 
power  by  great  corporations,  President  Roose- 
velt directed  the  Attorney-general  to  bring  suit 
under  the  Sherman  law  against  the  Northern  Se- 
curities Company  to  prevent  the  consolidation  of 
certain  railroads  in  the  North-west.  The  Su- 
preme Court  rendered  its  decision  in  1904,  sus- 
taining the  action  of  the  Attorney-general  and 
declaring  the  Northern  Securities  "  merger " 
illegal. 

In  1903  a  new  and  more  stringent  anti- 
trust law  was  enacted  compelling  corporations 
which  do  an  interstate  business  to  open  their 
accounts  to  the  inspection  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment. 

The  Panama  Canal. — For  more  than  half  a 
century  the  United  States  had  desired  a  ship 
canal  at  some  point  on  the  isthmus  joining 
North  and  South  America.  During  President 
Tyler's  administration  the  United  States  and 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  347 

Great  Britain  had  entered  into  a  compact 
known  as  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty,  by  the 
terms  of  which  each  country  bound  itself  never 
to  obtain  exclusive  control  over  any  isthmian 
canal  that  might  be  constructed  in  the  future, 
but  engaging  to  keep  it  neutral. 

In  course  of  time  the  relative  interests  of 
the  two  nations  in  a  possible  canal  greatly 
changed.  As  the  Pacific  coast  filled  with  peo- 
ple a  water-way  became  more  than  ever  nec- 
essary to  the  United  States.  After  many 
ineffectual  attempts  to  secure  the  abrogation 
of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty,  that  obstacle 
was  at  last  removed  by  a  new  international 
agreement  known  as  the  Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty 
(1902)  by  which  the  United  States  secured  full 
power  to  construct  ^nd  operate  a  canal  across 
the  isthmus.  mcroft  Libt*g 

A  treaty  was  at  once  negotiateci  with  the 
United  States  of  Colombia,  the  sovereign 
power  on  the  isthmus,  for  the  necessary  con- 
trol of  a  portion  of  Panama.  The  terms  were 
very  favorable  to  Colombia,  but  the  Colom- 
bian Senate,  hoping  to  compel  the  United 
States  to  pay  a  larger  sum  of  money  than  had 
been  proposed,  refused  to  ratify  the  treaty. 

At  this  juncture  the  people  of  Panama  de- 


348  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

clared  their  independence  of  Colombia,  and  set 
up  a  republic  which  was  recognized  by  the 
United  States  three  days  after  the  event,  and  by 
European  powers  quite  as  promptly.  Secretary 
Hay  then  offered  the  newly  instituted  Panama 
Government  terms  similar  to  those  which  Co- 
lombia had  rejected,  guaranteeing  in  addition  the 
independence  of  the  Panama  republic,  and  a  sat- 
isfactory agreement  was  soon  reached  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  canal. 

When  finished  the  Panama  Canal  will  be  of 
immeasurable  advantage  to  the  commercial 
world.  Vessels  will  no  longer  be  compelled  to 
voyage  around  Cape  Horn  to  reach  San  Fran- 
cisco and  the  ports  of  Asia.  Although  the  prop- 
erty of  the  United  States,  the  canal  will  be  open 
to  the  commerce  of  other  nations. 

The  Election  of  1904. — As  the  presidential 
year  approached,  public  sentiment — which  the 
politicians  would  gladly  have  stifled — demanded 
the  nomination  of  Roosevelt,  whom  the  accident 
of  McKinley's  death  had  promoted  from  the 
dignified  obscurity  of  the  vice-presidency  to  un- 
disputed party  leadership. 

The  Democrats,  unwilling  or  unready  to  ab- 
jure the  alleged  heresies  which  had  twice  re- 
sulted in  ignominious  defeat,  but  anxious  to 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  349 

reinstate  their  party  in  public  confidence,  nomi- 
nated a  conservative  candidate  on  a  mildly  radi- 
cal platform.  Alton  B.  Parker,  an  able  New 
York  jurist,  was  their  standard-bearer. 

The  campaign  was  exceptionally  quiet  and 
uneventful.  The  policies  of  the  administration 
were  generally  approved  by  the  country,  whose 
faith  in  the  common-sense  and  disinterested  pa- 
triotism of  the  President  seemed  invincible. 
The  electoral  vote  stood  three  hundred  and 
thirty-four  to  one  hundred  and  forty  for  Roose- 
velt and  Fairbanks,  backed  by  a  popular  major- 
ity of  unprecedented  magnitude. 

Congressional  Legislation  of  1906. — The  first 
session  of  the  Fifty-ninth  Congress  was  marked 
by  the  enactment  of  a  series  of  drastic  measures 
designed  to  extend  the  power  of  the  Federal 
Government,  especially  the  executive  branch  of 
it,  over  great  corporations. 

The  railway  rate  law  empowers  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  to  regulate  rates  of  rail- 
roads and  other  common  carriers.  The  meat 
inspection  and  pure  food  laws  are  directed 
against  unscrupulous  dealers  in  fraudulent  food 
products  in  the  interest  of  the  public  health; 
while  the  aim  of  the  immunity  law  is  to  deprive 
officials  of  recalcitrant  corporations  of  certain 


350  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

artificial  refuges  which  they  have  heretofore  en- 
joyed in  criminal  prosecutions. 

The  United  States  in  the  Twentieth  Century.— 
As  the  American  of  the  present  age  looks  out 
with  conscious  pride  over  the  vast  domain 
whose  sovereign  emblem  is  the  stars  and  stripes, 
and  contrasts  conditions  of  to-day  with  those 
which  prevailed  when  title  passed  from  the 
Latin  to  the  Teutonic  race,  he  beholds  a  change 
so  wonderful,  a  progress  so  marvellous,  as 
to  challenge  and  surpass  belief.  He  sees  a 
country  which  three  centuries  ago  contained 
scarcely  a  white  man  to  contrast  the  pallor 
of  his  skin  with  the  dusky  red  of  its  aborig- 
inal inhabitant,  to-day  maintaining  in  all  their 
strength  eighty  millions  of  prosperous  and 
happy  citizens.  -To  the  war-whoop  of  the  sav- 
age resounding  with  horrendous  din  through 
the  forest's  wild  retreats,  has  succeeded  the 
hum  of  industry  in  factory,  field,  and  mine.  In 
regions  of  once  unbroken  solitude,  or  echoing 
to  the  wild  beast's  cry  now  stand  the  busy 
marts  of  'trade.  While  greater  than  all  its 
vaunted  wealth,  surpassing  all  material  splen- 
dor, a  mighty  moral  influence  proceeds  from 
this  favored  people,  illuminating  by  its  radia- 
tions and  lifting  toward  higher  ideals  of  man- 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  351 

hood  and  citizenship  the  myriads  from  other 
lands  who  seek  our  welcoming  shores. 

There  are  many  indisputable  evils  in  the  po- 
litical and  industrial  life  of  the  times,  but  they 
are  in  gradual  process  of  correction — not  so 
much  through  doubtful  remedies  of  legisla- 
tion, which  thoughtless  agitators  are  apt  to 
invoke  for  insufficient  cause,  as  in  consequence 
of  the  steady  growth  of  an  enlightened  and 
responsive  public  conscience  and  a  natural  evolu- 
tionary adjustment  induced  by  the  ceaselss  play 
of  inherent  forces. 

Despite  the  prevalence  of  industrial  conten- 
tion capital  was  never  so  busy  or  so  productive 
as  now,  nor  labor  so  richly  remunerated.  The 
general  tendency  of  wages  is  up,  not  down. 
American  workingmen  to-day  enjoy  material 
comforts  and  intellectual  advantages  which  were 
unknown  to  their  class  a  generation  ago,  and  are 
still  impossible  in  other  countries.  Some  of  the 
great  corporations  encourage  employees  to  in- 
vest their  savings  in  the  stock  of  the  employ- 
ing enterprises,  thus  approximating  the  benefits 
of  cooperative  effort.  The  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road and  certain  other  transportation  companies 
provide  pensions  for  those  who  reach  the  age- 
limit  in  their  service. 


352  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

One  of  the  obvious  features  of  our  time  is  the 
rapid  growth  of  cities.  Out  of  the  nine  cities  of 
the  world  having  a  population  of  more  than  a 
million  each,  three  are  in  the  United  States, 
while  many  others  are  swiftly  approaching  that 
mark.  In  1790,  when  the  first  census  was  taken, 
the  urban  population  of  the  United  States  com- 
prised less  than  one-thirtieth  of  the  whole;  to- 
day one-third  find  their  homes  amid  the  rush 
and  roar  of  great  towns.  This  phenomenon  is 
chiefly  due  to  the  fact  that  urban  centres  are  the 
foci  of  predominant  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercial activities. 

The  development  of  American  cities  has  given 
rise  to  serious  problems  which  press  for  solu- 
tion, not  the  least  of  which  is  the  question  of 
government.  Many  municipalities  are  cursed 
by  predatory  "  rings  "  which  rob  the  tax-payers 
for  purposes  of  corrupt  and  selfish  profit.  But 
there  is  now  observable  throughout  the  land  a 
decided  reaction  from  the  passive  acquiescence 
of  the  past,  and  an  unmistakable  movement 
toward  the  elimination  of  partisanship  in  munici- 
pal government — a  demand  for  public  officials 
whose  qualifications  are  honesty  and  adminis- 
trative capacity. 

In  the  invention  and  use  of  superior  machin- 


WAR  AND  EXPANSION  353 

ery,  in  business  organization,  and  in  transpor- 
tation, America  is  giving  lessons  to  the  world. 

Our  public-school  system,  more  inclusive  and 
efficient  than  ever,  maintains  a  high  level  of 
popular  intelligence  to  which  the  numerous  pri- 
vate institutions  of  every  grade  materially  con- 
tribute. The  voluntary  gifts  of  philanthropic 
men  of  wealth  to  education  aggregate  millions 
of  dollars  annually. 

And  now,  in  final  retrospect,  what  is  the  secret 
of  this  rapid  and  amazing  metamorphosis — this 
superlative  achievement  of  material  and  moral 
greatness,  the  foundations  of  which  were  laid 
and  the  superstructure  reared  within  the  brief 
compass  of  three  hundred  years? 

The  answer  to  this  question,  drawn  from  the 
remarkable  career  of  this  unique  people  and 
briefly  epitomized  is  this:  The  open  secret  of 
American  success  is  the  universal  presence  of 
opportunity  which  begins  in  the  public  school 
and  extends  through  every  avenue  of  industrial 
employment  and  civic  life;  the  habit  of  self- 
reliance,  formed  under  stress  of  early  necessity 
and  fostered  through  years  of  continued  and 
voluntary  choice;  the  freedom  of  individuals 
and  associations  from  the  curse  of  governmental 
interference,  which  would  choke  and  paralyze 


354  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

private  initiative  and  teach  men  to  depend  upon 
the  state  rather  than  upon  their  own  unaided  and 
aggressive  energies;  the  spirit  of  fair  play  which 
recognizes  before  the  law  no  invidious  distinc- 
tion of  race,  religion,  or  social  caste.  It  is  the 
principle  of  individualism  which,  like  the  scarlet 
thread  that  runs  through  all  the  cordage  of  the 
British  Navy,  pervades  our  national  philosophy 
and  gives  direction  to  our  practice. 


OUTLINE   OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

CHAPTER   I— DISCOVERY 

FACE 

The  Attempt  to  Find  a  Short  Sea-passage  to  India  .       a 

Columbus   .  4 

Why  the  New  World  was  Called  America  ...  8 
John  Cabot  and  the  English  Claim  .  .  .  .  9 
Spanish  Explorations  and  Conquests  ..••.'•  .  .  9 
Why  North  America  did  not  Remain  Spanish  .  .11 

CHAPTER   II— THE   INDIANS 

Appearance,  Character,  and  Government     .        .        .      14 
Mode  of  Life      .       ....       .       *       ,        .15 

Warfare      .       .       .        .        .       .,    .'.-••       .        .      18 

Religion  ...  «  ,  .  *  •  ...  19 
Whe  Modern  Indian  .  .  .  .  ...  *  •  a° 

CHAPTER  III— THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES 

1607-1733 

Virginia  (1607)  .        .        .        .      „  .        .        .  .22 

The  Beginning  of  Slavery        .        .  ...  .      24 

Maryland  (1634)        .        .        .  .       *       .  .      26 

The  Carolinas  (1663)        .        .        .  .        .        .  .27 

Georgia  (1733)  .        .        .  *       .       .  .27 

CHAPTER  IV— THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES 
1620-91 

Massachusetts  (1620) 39 

Rhode  Island  (1636) 32 

Connecticut  (1636) 33 

New  Hampshire  (1691) 34 

King  Philip's  War 34 

355 


356  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

CHAPTER  V— WHE   MIDDLE   COLONIES 
1664-81 

PAGE 

New  York  (1664)       . 36 

New  Jersey  (1664) 38 

Pennsylvania  (1681).        . 38 

The  People 42 

Delaware — the  "Territories  of  Pennsylvania"  (1682).  45 

CHAPTER  VI— THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN 
WAR 

Its  Meaning .        .  46 

Differences  in  French  and  English  Character       .        .  48 

The  Growth  of  French  Dominion  .        *  ,     .        .        .  50 

The  Final  Conflict     .        .        .        ......  51 

Comparison  of  Military  Strength    .        .        .        ;        .  52 

The  Fall  of  Louisburg  and  Quebec         .        .        .        .  54 

Results  of  the  English  Conquest 55 

The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac      .       .       ...        .  57 

CHAPTER  VII— THE  COLONIES  IN  THE  EIGH- 
TEENTH  CENTURY 

Points  of  General  Divergence  and  Similarity         .        .59 

The  Southern  Colonies 61 

New  England 64 

The  Middle  Colonies 66 

The  Crudity  of  Colonial  Life 68 

Government 70 

Town  and  County 72 

CHAPTER  VIII— CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

A  Change  in  British  Policy 75 

The  Navigation  Acts 76 


OUTLINE   OF   AMERICAN  HISTORY      357 

PAGE 

The  Sending  of  British  Troops        .        .        .        . .      .77 

Taxation  Without  Representation         .        .        .        .      77 

The  Stamp  Act  and  the  Quartering  Act        .        •        -77 

The  Colonies  Remonstrate 78 

The  Townshend  Act 79 

Opposition  Becomes  Violent 80 

The  "Intolerable  Acts"   .        ..-..'.        .        .        .     81 

The  First  Continental  Congress      .        ...        .        .83 

The  First  Blood  of  the  Revolution         .        .  -     .        .84 
The  Meaning  of  the  Coming  Struggle    .-      .       .        .     85 


CHAPTER  IX— THE  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR 

The  Second  Continental  Congress  ....  .88 

The  Combatants  Compared     .        .        .        .        .  .89 

Battle  of  Bunker  Hill       .        .        .        .        ...      92 

The  Attempt  to  Take  Quebec         .        .        .        .  .93 

The  British  Evacuate  Boston          .-        .        .        .  ,    .     94 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  .        .        .        .  -95 

American  Reverses   .        .        .        .        *        .       *  .     98 

Trenton  and  Princeton             .        .        .        ...       .  .99 

The  British  in  Philadelphia     .  _  '    ".        ...  .    100 

The  Surrender  of  Burgoyne     .       .....  .100 

The  Conway  Cabal    .        .        .        ....  .    102 

The  Winter  at  Valley  Forge    ,        .       .       ,       .  .102 

Revolutionary  Finance     .        .                .        .        .  .103 

France  to  the  Rescue       .        .        ...       .  .    105 

Naval  Exploits ,        .  .    107 

The  Battle  of  Monmouth         .        .        ...       ...   108 

Stony  Point 109 

The  Treason  of  Arnold     .      k.       .       .       .       .  .109 

The  War  in  the  South       .        .        .        .       .    ,  .  .no 

Yorktown   ....        .        .        .        ...  .112 

The  Treaty  of  Peace         .        .        .        .        .        .  .113 

Revolutionary  Doctrine  and  Modern  Practice     .  .114 


358  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


CHAPTER  X— FORMATION  OF  THE  FEDERAL 
GOVERNMENT 

PAGE 

The  Confederation     .        ...        .        .        .        .118 

The  North-west  Territory  and  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  119 
The  Constitutional  Convention       .        .        .        .        .    120 

State  or  National  Sovereignty?      .  '     .        .        .        .    121 

Slavery        .     .  .    .-*.:.        .    "    ,       V       .        .        .    122 

The  Constitution       .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .123 

Ratification  of  the  Constitution      .        .      ...    *        .125 

Amendments .        .        .126 

A  Monarchical  Type  of  Executive 127 

The  First  Presidential  Election      .       .       .       .        .129 
The  Cabinet       .        .        .        .       .       •  •'    *       »        .    130 

Financial  Reform '    ,        .        .130 

The  Rise  of  Political  Parties  ...       .       *       .        .132 

Trouble  with  the  Indians        • 135 

The  American  People  in  1800  .        .        .        .       ,        .   135 


CHAPTER  XI— EARLY  ACHIEVEMENT  AND 
NAWIONAL   EXPANSION 

The  Jay  Treaty         .        .        .        .        ...        .  .  139 

The  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  1798       ...        .  -139 

The  Virginia  and  Kentucky  Resolutions       .       ".  .  140 

The  Election  of  Jefferson         .        ._  ".'',.        .  .  141 

The  Barbary  War     .        .        .        .      ,.        .        .  .  141 

The  Louisiana  Purchase  and  the  Expedition  of  Lewis 

and  Clark        .        .       .       .       .       ;       .       .  .  142 

The  Hamilton-Burr  Duel,  1804      .       ...  .  145 

Fulton's  Steamboat          .       .       .       .       ...  .  147 


CHAPTER  XII— THE   WAR   OF    1812 

The  Embargo 150 

The  Presidency  of  James  Madison,  1809-17         .        .151 


OUTLINE   OF  AMERICAN   HISTORY      359 

PAGE 

The  Battle  of  Tippecanoe       .       .       .  .       .152 

War  Declared 153 

Military  Disaster 154 

Naval  Victories          .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .    155 

The  Enemy  in  Washington 156 

Jackson  and  the  Indians 157 

New  Orleans  .  .  .  ,  «  .  .  .  .158 
The  Hartford  Convention  .  ,  ...  .159 
Results  of  the  War  .  .  ....  .  .  .  159 


CHAPTER  XIII— THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL- 
ITY AND  THE  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
POLITICAL   PARTIES 

The  Purchase  of  Florida  .       ,.       .       .,       .    162 
The  Monroe  Doctrine        .        ....        .        .    162 

New  Political  Divisions  ...  *  .  .  .  »  .165 
The  Slavery  Question  and  the  Missouri  Compromise,  169 
The  Tariff  Question  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .172 


CHAPTER  XIV— ANDREW  JACKSON  AND  THE 
REIGN   OF   THE   PEOPLE 

The  Election  of  Jackson 174 

The  Spoils  System .    176 

Nullification .        .177 

The  Democracy  of  Jefferson  and  of  Jackson  Com- 
pared      .        • .     .    180 

Jackson  and  the  Bank 181 

The  Administration  of  Martin  Van  Buren  .  .  .183 
The  Rise  and  First  Success  of  the  Whig  Party  .  184 
The  Whigs  Fail  to  Make  a  Record  .  .  .  .185 


36o  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


CHAPTER  XV— INVENTION,  LITERATURE, 
MORAL  PROGRESS,  AND  SOCIAL 
CONDITIONS 

PAGE 

Material  Improvement     .    ...  '  '.ry     -«.       .        •        .187 

Why  the  South  did  not  Develop    .       ,       .  :    -.        .189 
Slave  Life  .        .    ,    .        •  •"'-•        •        •        •        •        •    190 

The  Abolitionists       ...        .        ,        ...    191 

Great  Statesmen        .        .       .       .       .       •        .        -193 

Growth  of  Democracy      . 194 


CHAPTER  XVI— THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION 
IN  POLITICS 

Texas  and  the  Election  of  1844      •        •        •        •        •    I97 

The  Democrats  Again  in  Power      .        .        •        .        -.198 
The  War  with  Mexico,  1846-48      .        .        ..-•'.        .    199 

Results  of  the  Mexican  War    .  .        .        .        .202 

The  Election  of  1848         .  .        .        .        .        .    203 

California    .        .        ...        ..        »       .        ..    204 

The  Compromise  of  1850         .        .       .        .        .        .    205 

Three  Great  Speeches       .        ,        .     •  '..       .        .        .    206 

The  Election  of  1852  and  the  Death  of  the  Whig 

Party .  .  207 

The  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  1854.        .        .        .        .208 

Violence  in  Kansas    .        .        .        .        .        ...    209 

The  Birth  of  the  Republican  Party  and  the  Election 

of  1856  .  .  .  -  v 210 

The  Dred  Scott  Decision  .  .  .  **&,  .  .212 
The  Raid  and  Execution  of  John  Brown  .  .  .213 

CHAPTER   XVII— SECESSION 

The  Election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  .  .  .  .215 
Secession  of  the  Cotton  States 217 


OUTLINE   OF   AMERICAN   HISTORY  361 

PAGE 

Fort  Sumter 219 

The  Call  to  Arms 220 

Other  States  Secede 220 

The  Confederate  Constitution 221 

The  Motive  and  the  Argument  of  Secession  .        .        .  222 


CHAPTER  XVIII— THE  CIVIL  WAR,  1861-65 

The  Belligerents  Compared     .        .        .        ...   226 

The  Federal  Plan  of  War         .        .        .        .        .  .   227 

Confederate  Victories  in  the  East  .        .        .        .  .    227 

Bull  Run     .        .        .        .        .        .        .        ...    228 

McClellan  and  the  Army  of  the  Potomac      .        *  .228 

Failure  of  the  Movement  Against  Richmond       .  .229 

The  Merrimac  and  the  Monitor      .        .     '.        .  •    .231 
Antietam  .          .........    233 

Emancipation    .        .                 .        .        .        .        ,  .235 

Fredericksburg  and  Chancellors ville      .        »        .  .238 

Union  Victories  in  the  West    .        .        .        .        .  .    240 

Forts  Henry  and  Donelson  and  Island  No.  10      .  .241 

Pittsburg  Landing     .        .        .        .        ,        .        .  .241 

The  Capture  of  New  Orleans          -..-•'    .        .  .    242 

Vicksburg  .        .        .        .        .        .    \  .        .        „  .    242 

Gettysburg 243 

Chickamauga «        ,  .    245 

Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary  Ridge     .        .  .245 

The  Blockade     . .    246 

Confederate  Finance         .        .        .        .        ,        .  .248 

The  Beginning  of  the  Final  Struggle     .        .        .  .    249 

Sherman  Takes  Atlanta „   250 

Grant  and  Lee  .....       .       .       .       «  .251 

The  Presidential  Election  of  1864  .        .        .        .  .252 

The  Fall  of  the  Confederacy   .        .        .       .       .  .253 

The  Armies  Disband         «.      •       ».      »•     .        .  .    255 

Results  of  the  War   .      -.  '    .       .    \  „       *       ,  .   256 


362  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 
CHAPTER  XIX— RECONSTRUCTION 

PAGE 

Opposing  Policies .  .   259 

The  Assassination  of  Lincoln         .        .        .  ,  .   260 

Thaddeus  Stevens  Supreme    .       .       .       .  .  .261 

Andrew  Johnson        .        .        .        »~     r      •  .  .262 

The  President  and  Congress     .        .        .     ...  »  .262 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment  •       .        .        .  .  .263 

The  Reconstruction  Acts     >'   .  •     .       .       •  •  .   264 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment      .        ,        .        .  .  .    267 

Anarchy  in  the  South •  .    267 

The  Failure  of  Reconstruction        .       .  .     .  ,  .269 

The  Negro  of  To-day        ,;,      .        .       ,       .  .  .   271 

CHAPTER  XX— FROM  THE  IMPEACHMENT 

OF  JOHNSON  TO  THE  POLITICAL 

REVOLUTION  OF  1884 

The  Tenure-of-Office  Act         .        .        .        .  .  .275 

The  Impeachment  of  Andrew  Johnson  (1868)  .  .    276 

The  Purchase  of  Alaska 278 

The  Presidency  of  General  Grant,  1869-77  .  .  .    279 

Grant's  Weakness  as  an  Executive        .        .  ,  .    279 

The  Republican  Party  Splits  .        .        .'•     .  ..  .281 

The  Reign  of  Graft   .        .        .        .    *•  .        .  .  .283 

Patriotic  Achievement      .        .      -.     -.-.  .  .284 

The  Resumption  Act        .        .        •        •        .  •  .    285 

The  Centennial           .        ,        .        .-      .        .  .  .    286 

The  Contested  Election  of  1876      ...  V  .    287 

The  Electoral  Commission       .        .        .        «  .  .290 

The  Hayes  Administration      .        ..        .  .  .291 

Garfield  and  Arthur       -  .     -  .       •.       .       .  t   -  .   292 

CHAPTER  XXI— THE  OPENING  OF  A  NEW  ERA 

The  Democracy  Returns  to  Power 295 

The  First  Administration  of  Cleveland          .        .        .297 


OUTLINE  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY       363 

PAGE 

The  Presidential  Succession  Act — 1886         .        .        .298 

Labor  Troubles i        .    299 

Anarchist  Riots          .        . 300 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Act         .        .        .      ...        .301 

Cleveland  and  Civil  Service  Reform       .        .        .        .302 

Cleveland's  Famous  Tariff  Message        .        .        .        .304 

The  Election  of  1888         .        .        ...        .        .   306 

The  Harrison  Administration          .        .        .        .        .   307 

The  McKinley  Tariff         .        .        .        .        .        .        .   307 

The  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law,  1890      ....   308 

CHAPTER  XXII— THE  SILVER  QUESTION 
IN   POLITICS 

The  Rise  of  the  Populists         .        .        .        ...   309 

The  Free  Silver  Movement      .        .        .        ,        .  .310 

The  Sherman  Silver  Purchase  Act          .        .        .  .312 

The  Second  Cleveland  Administration          .        .  .313 

The  Repeal  of  the  Sherman  Act,  1893  .        ..        .  .315 

The  Wilson  Tariff .   318 

The  Columbian  Exposition      .        .        .        .        .  -319 

The  Great  Pullman  Strike,  1894     .        .        .        .  .320 

Cleveland  Champions  the  Monroe  Doctrine          .  .323 

Free  Silver  and  the  Battle  of  1896         .        .        .  .324 

The  Argument   .        .        . 327 

The  Triumph  of  the  Gold  Standard       .        .        .  -329 

The  Administration  of  William  McKinley    .        .  .329 

The  Dingley  Tariff    .        .        .       .       .       .        .  .   330 

CHAPTER  XXIII— WAR   AND   EXPANSION 

The  Revolt  of  Cuba  .        .        .        .        .        .  .  .331 

The  Destruction  of  the  Maine       .        .        .  .  .   332 

War  with  Spain         .        .        .        .        .        .  .  .   332 

The  Victory  of  Manila  Bay     .        ....  .  .   333 

San  Juan  and  Santiago    .        .        .        .        .  .  ?    .   334 

The  End  of  the  War        ...       .       .  .  .335 


364  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

PAGE 

The  Philippine  Question  and  the  Presidential  Elec- 
tion of  1900     335 

What  Has  Been  Accomplished  in  our  Island  Posses- 
sions        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .    338 

Cuba    .        . 339 

Results  of  the  War  with  Spain        .        .        .        ,        .    341 
The  United  States  and  the  "Open  Door"  in  China     .    343 
The  Assassination  of  McKinley       .        .        «        .        .344 
The  Presidency  of  Theodore  Roosevelt        '.        •  -     .   344 
The  Coal  Strike,  1902        .        .       „        ....   345 

Roosevelt  and  the  Trusts         .        .        .        .        .        .346 

The  Panama  Canal    .       ..        .        .        .        .        .        .   346 

The  Election  of  1904 .   348 

Congressional  Legislation  of  1906  .        •  349 

The  United  States  in  the  Twentieth  Century       .        .350 


MAY  9  0  1017 


